I Can't Choose What I Want To Remember
by Grillefirer
Summary: Eren has been captured, and with him goes humanity's last hope. That hope is reignited when he turns out alive and well, but is dampened again when he remembers nothing about his past. With his memory gone, his loyalty shifted and shifters from outside trying to rescue him, will he save humanity, or will that hope vanish with his memory?
1. Hope Snatched Away

Levi's POV

"Two 12 meter classes, inbound!"

I looked over. Two of the beasts had just appeared out of a nearby bunch of trees and were making a beeline for us. I growled and steered my horse towards them.

How had the situation gotten out of hand so quickly? The 58th Expedition had started like any other. Its goal was to scout out the fastest possible route to Wall Maria in anticipation for the expedition to reclaim her, and Erwin had also discussed the possibility of establishing hidden supply depots and updating the maps we had on the area.

But mere hours after we had left the wall, disaster struck. Dozens of titans began to simultaneously attack the Survey Corps from all sides.

The worst part was that the assault was organized. Whatever it was that was leading them, it was intelligent. The titan onslaught was arranged in a way that forced us to keep riding in a straight line, making maneuver impossible. Robbed of flight, the only thing the Survey Corps could do was fight, and the casualties we were incurring were horrific.

As i got within 10 meters of them, i engaged my gear and shot up. Somersaulting to dodge a swing by the first one, i swung around his neck and sliced his nape. As he fell, i headed for the second one. Firing my cable into his right forearm, i used the momentum to swing around and land above his head, cutting the nape, and diving off before he dissolved.

I heard a whistle. The other soldier with me was leading my horse by the reins and galloping towards me. He stopped and i mounted my horse. Nodding my thanks, i cracked the reins and we rushed to rejoin the formation.

I looked around me. Two more flares had just been fired into the air, joining the trails of the dozen or so that had already been fired. The losses were getting so severe that my Special Operations Squad had been broken up to plug gaps in the line.

"What are we going to do corporal? We can't just continue riding into an ambush."

"Just stay in formation soldier. If there is a change in plan Erwin will-" At that moment i heard thunderous footsteps coming from a nearby hill. Over the crest of the hill appeared another titan. This one was 15 meters tall, and covered from head to toe in amber colored armor, save a few small small gaps at his joints. He lowered himself into a running formation, and began sprinting directly towards us.

 _The Armored Titan._ I had never personally faced off against him but i knew what it looked like from reading the reports of the breach of Wall five years ago, and this titan matched it perfectly. I grabbed a purple flare and fired it into the air. We had been provided these flares in the event of encountering an Aberrant.

I drew one of my swords. "Prepare for combat! Ride around his flank and-" But i never got to finish my sentence, as the Armored Titan raced past my group, and deeper into the interior.

The two of us stared as he disappeared over the crest of a hill, perplexed. My partner wondered out loud. "Why would he just ignore us?" before it hit me. _He was heading for the supply wagons. He was heading for Eren!_

"Hold the formation!" I barked the order at my fellow soldier and started chasing after the titan. He was faster than my horse and had a huge head start, but he left behind a trail of easy to follow footprints. As i rode i heard a distant explosion and a yellow bolt of thunder shot down about half a kilometer away.

As i rode over a gentle slope I spotted three other horses, rapidly closing from the distance and converging upon the same spot. As they got closer, i could see that it was recruit Ackerman, Petra and a new recruit named Dietmar. Dietmar and Petra had been assigned to protect Eren so i wasn't surprised by their presence, but what irked me was that Ackerman had clearly abandoned her post to save her friend. Deep down however, i was relieved. I didn't know the extent of this aberrant's capabilities and having backup, especially backup as skilled as Ackerman, was a godsend.

Eren's Titan was facing off against the Armored Titan. Around them was littered the corpses of many Survey Corps Members, their horses and Titans of differing sizes.

Both of them were wounded, Eren's left forearm was missing and the armor on the Armored Titan's chest and face was partially shattered. As i watched, Eren grabbed a nearby rock and smashed it against his opponent's face. It didn't do any visible damage, but it stunned the Armored Titan, allowing Eren to tackle him to the ground and began tearing at the armor around his nape.

The Armored Titan roared and smashed his elbow into Eren's face, throwing him off. But Eren immediately lunged forward again, hardening his fist and punching his right elbow, which bent at an unnatural angle. By now Eren's left forearm had regenerated, and he grabbed the Armored Titan in a hold and began to tug at the armor around his opponent's nape.

With an earth shattering roar he tore out a huge chunk of the armor in one swift action. The Armored Titan roared in pain and struggled, but Eren managed to restrain him. I felt a surge of triumph. All Eren had to do was bite off the titan's nape and he would win. Even if Eren couldn't reach the nape it would only take one of us to finish off the Armored Titan while Eren held him.

A boulder flew in and smashed into Eren, tearing off chunks of flesh and throwing him off his opponent.

"Eren!" Ackerman yelled and spurred on her horse. The rest of us followed suit.

"Levi! Look!" I turned around to where Petra was frantically gesturing. Another Aberrant! This one looked more like an ape, with long arms and his entire body covered in fur. He was gripping a rock in each hand, and six 15 meter classes and ten 8 meter classes were arranged in the forest behind him. As i watched, he hurled another at Eren. Both he and his opponent was almost healed, but the rock impacted him and he went down again.

Ackerman's horse drew up beside mine. I looked over and saw that her face was tight with anxiety, "Just hang on Eren! We're on our way!"

But it was becoming obvious that Eren couldn't last that long. The Armored Titan leapt forward and tore off his entire right arm, and as he tried to counterattack with an armored left fist another rock smashed into his chest, and he fell to his knees. The Armored Titan pulled him forward and smashed his fist into the nape of Eren's titan.

 _That blow was hard enough to kill him._ But as the Armored Titan tore Eren's limp body from his Titan form's nape, i could see that he was groaning and writhing in pain, hurt but alive The relief i felt immediately gave way to horror as the aberrant turned and ran.

"No!" I spurred my horse to gallop even faster. The accursed beast had already robbed so many of my comrades of their lives, he was not going to steal Eren away as well.

The ape-like aberrant smashed his fist into the ground. As if it was a signal, the six 15 meter classes and five of the 8 meter classes moved forward while the Armored Titan ran towards the forest.

All four of us simultaneously engaged our gears and shot towards them. I drew my blades and slashed out the eyes of one. Leaving him for Petra to finish, i dodged a blow from another and sliced out his nape, then fell several feet and sliced out the nape of two more 8 meter classes. I could see out of the corner of my eyes that my fellow soldiers had taken care of most of the other titans, and only a few more stood between us and Eren.

Just a little more. The ape-like titan was still watching us intently. As i watched, he reached behind him, grabbed one of the titans and crushed his head and neck, killing him. He turned around, looking at me straight in the eye,and hurled the Titan's lifeless form at me.

I hurriedly disengaged my gear and fell to the ground. The titan's body soared just feet above my head and collided with three others. They collapsed into a heap of naked forms, taking a screaming Dietmar with them, and a flailing arm from one knocked Petra aside. I hurriedly tried to re engage my gear, but it was too late and i hit the ground. I felt a searing pain in my left ankle and i knew that it was broken.

I heard someone run up to me. It was Petra, and judging from the way she held her side she had broken some ribs from the blow. Above me, Ackerman was still desperately trying to reach Eren. With a guttural cry she killed two more titans and shot towards the forest, but the Armored Titan grabbed her cable and twisted it, sending her to the ground.

I could only watch, helpless, as humanity's last hope was carried away and vanished into the forest.


	2. Reignition

Levi's POV

"Captain, don't you think we should do something about Mikasa?"

I looked up from my bowl of stew. "Hm?"

Petra gestured over to another table where recruits Ackerman, Arlert and several of their friends were sitting. But unlike most of her friends, Ackerman's meal was untouched. Rather she was just sitting there, hands on her lap and eyes closed, and not eating, despite coaxing by Arlert.

The simultaneous loss of Eren and over 60% of our strength had shattered public opinion, as well as the faith of the nobles in the Survey Corps. Almost all streams of funding had dried up save those directly connected to Historia, who still supported us, although in the face of mounting resistance it wasn't clear how long we would have that support. Erwin and i had to fight for every plate of food, every replacement blade, every coin of funding. We were forced to use lower quality ingredients in our dishes, we were scrounging for spare parts and we couldn't afford to carry out any large scale exercises, limiting ourselves to small scale training.

To make matters worst, morale had almost collapsed. Some of the recruits,like recruits Blouse and Springer, were gloomy but retained a quiet sense of optimism. Some, like Arlert, were visibly affected, but kept it more or less to themselves, mourning in private.

But the worst was recruit Ackerman. In the three months since Yaeger's disappearance she had lost a lot of weight, and her training scores had plummeted. In one case she had passed out during training, and we had to cut her down from a tree where she had attached herself with her 3DMG before fainting. She had in fact skipped several trainings entirely, and i knew from questioning the other female recruits that she was using the time to mourn Eren.

I huffed into my cup of tea. Petra was right. This couldn't go on any longer. I wasn't going to let one of my soldiers die from malnutrition, not under my watch. I got up and walked over to her table,ignoring the stares i received.

I pushed the bowl of stew under her, forcing her to look at it, then physically opened her hand and shoved the the spoon into it. "Oi brat, eat, before i start force-feeding it to you."

She stared at the spoon, deliberately not looking up at me. "I'm not hungry."

I looked critically at her sunken cheekbones and obvious veins. "Even if you aren't, eat. God knows you need the nutrients."

She looked back down at her spoon, but didn't do anything else.

"Look, you're one of the Survey Corps strongest soldiers. We need you to be at full strength, we can't afford to lose any more soldiers, especially one as skilled as you are."

Again, she didn't say anything, just closing her eyes and leaning forward slightly.

I took a deep breath. I didn't want to have to say this but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"What do you think Yaeger would say if he saw you like this?" I noticed the considerable change in her demeanor when i mentioned him, but i pressed on."Do you think he would approve? How do you think he would have felt if he found out that his sister is starving herself to death over his disappearance?"

I leaned in closer to her. "If it was you who was missing, what do you think Yaeger would be doing? He would be out there right now, training with a vengeance, pestering us to start another expedition, hell, knowing him he would likely sneak out of his own,shift and singlehandedly begin tearing up the world to look for you. Yet what are you doing to honor his memory? Sitting here moping, refusing to nourish yourself?"

"Let me ask you Ackerman. Where would you rather die? Would you rather die here, within the walls, or out there fighting?"

The dining hall was completely silent. She looked up, and i could see anger, sadness, regret and more emotions in them, and she was grabbing the spoon so hard her knuckles were turning white. I braced myself for some kind of reaction, an emotional outburst or physical threat, but instead she simply quietly dipped her spoon in the bowl and began take small mouthfuls of the stew, which progressively grew in speed and size, to the point that she was practically shovelling the food into her mouth, getting more on the table than into her.

I cringed. Normally i would tell her off for her sloppy eating habits, but considering this was the most she had eaten in weeks i decided to let it slide, returning to my seat and taking a sip of my tea.

Goodness, even the tea tastes terrible.

...

It had been a week since my lecture, and Ackerman seemed to be recovering remarkably well. She was still gloomy, and her performance was still below par, but Hange reported that her weight was back up to a healthy level, which was improvement.

I watched silently as she walked into the mess hall, flanked by Arlert and Blouse. She grabbed a bowl of porridge, say down, and began to eat ravenously. She finally got her appetite back, which was good, because i had other things to worry about.

"Captain Levi? Why did you bring your paperwork to lunch?" One of the recruits, Gerhardt, was looking curiously over, at the small stack of paper i had beside my bowl of porridge.

"Because there's been so little of it." I responded, too tired to come up with a better response. There had been more and more calls to either decrease our funding or disband us altogether, and there had even been a proposal to change the Survey Corps into a sort of elite branch of the Garrison. Erwin was going mad trying to block all of these, and i hadn't been getting much sleep either.

At this moment the door to the the mess hall opened, and Erwin entered. "Attention recruits, fall in for mission briefing."

Mission briefing?

...

Erwin's POV

I looked over at the assembled troops. It pained me to see how few of them were still alive. Just over a hundred had limped back into the wall after the Expedition, and just over 30 weren't wounded. I could still spot several troops with scars, bandages or open wounds. The losses had been made worse by the fact that almost no one wanted to join the Survey Corps after the catastrophe.

Still, they had a mission, and they needed to be briefed on it. I cleared my throat, and they fell silent.

"Two days ago, the wall around Stohess was breached, and several dozen titans managed to enter before the wall was resealed. Due to the size and scale of the breach, as well as the considerable losses the Garrison has incurred, we have been ordered to aid in the clearing effort."

A ripple of shock and surprise spread through the Survey Corps. I heard footsteps coming up towards me. It was grabbed my arm and whispered harshly. "Erwin, do you really think we are in any shape to help? We have fewer than 50 combat ready soldiers and morale is at the lowest I've ever seen. We can't risk any more losses."

I signed. "I know Levi, but the higher ups have hinted that if we help, and do a satisfactory job of it, they will increase our funding. Not back to pre-58th Expedition levels, but at least enough to rebuild our numbers and stores. Besides, they need a victory to raise their morale. "

"Rest assured the task assigned to us is manageable. If it's organized and carried out with your usual level of skill, casualties will be minimal, or even zero."

He didn't say anything, but let go of my arm and walked back. I took that as reluctant acceptance and pulled out a stick, using it to point at the map hung on the wall behind me.

"Our task is to free these three villages, and hold them until Garrison troops can be freed up to relieve us. Most of the titans gravitated towards denser population areas, but these three have been taken over as well. Reconnaissance suggests that there are relatively few titans. We will be sending three groups to liberate them simultaneously. The Garrison has promised us support if they can spare it, but we can't count on it."

I pulled out a list that i had prepared earlier, detailing troops which i felt were in battle ready condition. "The three teams will be lead by me, Captain Levi and Petra. They will be 9 strong each, not including the leaders. In addition there will be a fourth team, 6 strong, which will be our reserve. " I proceeded to rattle off the names of the troops that would be participating.

The three teams assembled before me in three neat rows, with the fourth team standing in a more haphazard formation behind them. Captain Levi and Petra went to stand before their respective teams. I nodded. "The rest of you are dismissed. Teams 1, 2 and 3, i will now brief you on-"

"Wait!"

I looked over. I could see that it was recruit Ackerman. She stormed over and asked, not without a hint of outrage, "Why am i not part of this operation?"

I looked down at my list. Mikasa Ackerman- Skilled but mental state unstable. Physical state to be reassessed. Not to be committed to battle.

"Ackerman, it has been decided that you are simply not fit for battle in your current situ-"

"But sir, please, i need to take part." I was slightly taken aback. I had never seen her like this. Her tone was a mixture of urgentness and anger, and her eyes had a sort of pleading to them, as if i was depriving her of what mattered the most to her in this world. It also had a sort of fire in them, a fire i hadn't seen since-

It struck me. She needed to go to avenge her brother. I remembered the fire in Eren's eyes whenever he spoke about or encountered titans. That very fire was now reflected in Ackerman's eyes.

That struck a nerve. I knew what it was like having a loved one perish, not being able to do anything about it, and the burning desire to do something, anything to avenge them.

I signed. "Very well."

Ackerman blinked. apparently she hadn't expected me to say that. "Sir?"

"You'll be placed in Team 3, under Petra. Unless you have any objections?"

"No sir, thank you sir!" she have me a salute, and ran off to join her fellow soldiers.

...

Petra's POV

Zzziiiippppp.

The group waiting perked up upon hearing the familiar sound of a 3DMG being used. I looked up as Mikasa swung and perched herself on a tree above us.

"All clear, there are no titans standing between us and the village, but there are two titans occupying the village, one 12 meter class and another 3 meter class".

I felt the relief in the soldiers around me. I gave Mikasa a thumbs up then turned to address the rest of the troops as she grappled down.

"Alright everyone, prepare for battle. We still need to be prepared in case we meet an Aberrant, and we still need to protect the village from any other incoming titans."

The soldiers present put on their 3DMG gear, grabbed the horses, and began carefully heading our way to the village. As per our standard battle formation, two scouts would cover our flank, using the 3DMG to grapple from tree to tree to warn us if any titans suddenly appeared. This would give way to a miniaturized version of the Long Range Scouting Formation once we left the woods we were encamped in to liberate the village, which sat in the center of acres of farmland.

After ten minutes of walking, we left the forest. I could just see the village buildings, which were about two kilometers away from us.

"Saddle up!" The team got on it's horses and we galloped towards the village. As we got closer i could see the 12 meter titan, walking aimlessly around the village center. At this moment, a movement to our right caught my eye.

I gasped. Standing in the nearby forest, watching us ride into battle, was Eren's Titan form.


	3. Everything Back But His Memory

Erwin's POV

I had braced myself for a lot of things before setting out for this mission. I knew that we would encounter tians, and that there would be combat. I braced myself for the appearance of adherents, and in fact secretly hoped for them to appear, so that i could get revenge for the losses incurred by the Survey Corps. And although i didn't relish the thought, i was mentally prepared for the death of some of my soldiers.

But what i did not expect was to see Eren's Titan form charge across the village my formation had just liberated, followed closely by Petra and the rest of her team. Upon seeing the sight, my entire team stopped everything they were doing, staring as he ran away from us.

"Sir! Should, should we intervene?"

I paused for a moment. "Auruo, Eldo, come with me! Gerhardt, Springer, prepare the horses and come after us, we're need them if we run out of forest. The rest of you, defend the village!" i engaged by 3DMG and swung towards them,followed closely by Auruo and Eldo.

As i got closer, i yelled at Petra's squad. "Don't hurt him! Just disable him long enough for us to cut him out!"

Upon hearing his, Eren's titan cocked his head. In a spray of blood a tendril shot out of his lower left back. It was covered in exposed muscle, although some parts of bone were visible. I estimated it was about 12 meters long. It ended in a curved horn made of bone, about 3 meters in size, which was slightly flattened. The tendril shot up towards his neck and covered his nape. The bone was at least a meter thick, there was no way we could cut through it.

Eldo gasped. "What the- Since when can Eren do that?"

"Change of plans! Disable Eren, then disable that tendril!"

As we neared Eren, four of the Petra's team, Petra included, engaged their 3DMGs and shot upwards towards him. Two of them shot towards his legs, while the other two aimed for his nape.

In one swift motion Eren turned around and snatched the two gunning for his legs, Petra and a recruit named Magnus, out of the air. He dropped the two into his open palm, who looked up at him with fear.

For one tense moment, they looked at each other, before Eren reached down and, using his fingers,crushed their respective 3DMGS, before dropping them gently on the ground and continued running.

Auruo growled. "What does that greenhorn think he's doing? Hey brat, those things cost money you know!"

My mind was whirring. Why was Eren running away from us? And how was he even here? Captain Levi had been very clear, he had been carried away by two titans who outmatched him, and had been badly wounded. If he had escaped why hadn't he contacted us before returning?

The other two recruits shot towards his tendril, and sliced on opposite ends, causing it to flop to the ground. Before they could exploit this however, Eren slowed for a moment, allowing them to zip by him, then grabbed their cables and tossed them into a nearby lake. Eldo shot in, trying to use the opportunity to attack the nape, but the tendril, now regenerated, shot up and cut his 3DMG's ropes. He yelled in alarm and fell several feet before Auruo caught him.

"Commander!" I looked up and cursed. We were running out of trees. A couple dozen meters ahead the trees stopped, giving way to open fields.

"Sir! Down here!" Springer and Gerhardt were leading three more horses to our location. I lowered myself down onto one, while Auruo dropped Eldo onto another and took the last one for himself.

"We need a new plan, he knows how to counter our usual tactics." But before i could come up with one, i heard an explosion and the ground next to Eren was churned up by a cannon shot.

A cannon shot? I could see that the Garrison had set up a battery of six cannons on a nearby hill. This must be the support that they had promised to us.

As soon as Eren spotted them, he ground to a halt in a spray of dirt and swung around, preparing to escape, but didn't get the chance as Auruo shot up and cut his left knee, destroying the muscles there and causing him to fall.

"Now's our chance! Attack! " About half the soldiers leapt off their horses and drew their blades, preparing for combat, while the rest rode around him, trying to encircle him. I lead my horse directly towards him, planning to-

"Wait!"

I looked around and saw recruit Ackerman, standing directly in front of Eren. Despite yells by her fellow comrades to get to safer ground, she stood rooted there. Eren pushed himself up and looked ready to run off again, but stopped when he spotted Ackerman standing in front of him.

"Eren, please." Ackerman's eyes were filled with tears, and her voice was gentle, although loud enough that i could just hear it. She tentatively raised a placating hand. "Stop. Why are you doing this?" For a moment he looked at her, his body relaxing slightly, and i thought for a moment that he would actually stop and listen to her. But then he leapt over her and continued running.

But he didn't get three strides before his left leg exploded into bloody chunks of flesh. I heard several explosions as the Garrison cannons opened fire upon the shifter. With a roar Eren hardened his fists and grabbed a nearby rock. He prepared to throw it at them, but Auruo hacked at his shoulder and his arm flopped uselessly to his side. Several other recruits began to attack his limbs. He managed to fend off the first few attacks, but soon succumbed to the sheer number. Within a minute we had disabled all four of his limbs, and he was lying face down, immobilized. His only remaining defense being the tendril covering his neck.

"Aberrant coming from 9 O'Clock!" I looked around. It wasn't the Armored or Bestial Titan, but instead a titan that was running on four legs, like a spider. Two soldiers charged forward to intercept but it charged past them. With a high pitched yell it lunged directly for the disabled Eren.

Another tendril appeared, this time out of his right lower back. The two tendrils shot out and stabbed into the titan's abdomen. With one swift action they separated, slicing the titan clean in half. As the titan's still moving top half landed on the ground it was silenced by a tendril stabbing into its nape. As soon as that was taken care off Eren's tendrils shot back, to guard his own exposed nape, but it was too late.

With a yell Auruo hacked away his nape and pulled Eren out of his titan form. The tendrils went limp, impaling themselves into the rapidly-dissolving titan body just inches from Auruo's feet.

…...

All the soldiers crowded around Eren as Auruo looked over him.

"He's alive." I heard several of them breathe sighs of relief, myself included.

"But, what the hell is he wearing?"

I frowned, now that it was mentioned i realized that Eren wasn't wearing our normal combat uniform, nor was he wearing his own clothes. Instead, he was dressed in a loose brown shirt and a long pair of similarly colored pants, held up by a leather belt. The clothes were fairly rough, with a cloth quality somewhere between a potato sack and our normal clothes. Strangely enough, the leather belt seemed to be of much better quality than even those worn by the nobles. None of it looked like anything we wore inside the walls, with the design, stitching, all being substantially different.

I pushed these thoughts aside for later. Now wasn't the time for focusing on such trivial details, i needed to get Eren back to HQ, and to order and organize the rest of the mission. But before i could, i heard yells and recruit Ackerman stumbled forward, pushing her comrades aside, ignoring their cries of protest and pointed looks.

She knelt beside Eren, pulled him into an embrace, and burst into tears, not caring about all the eyes on her. Some of her comrades awkwardly patted her back and muttered comforting words, but she didn't even seem to notice them, gripping the German boy tightly, her body wracking with sobs.

…...

Mikasa's POV

I could dimly feel their hands patting me on the back, hear them mutter some kind of consoling words to me as i wept. It didn't matter. None of it mattered except for the German boy in my arms, the one that the world had so cruelly taken from me.

The one that i had just gotten back.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I couldn't afford to break down now. Eren might be wounded or worse, have some kind of internal bleeding, that Auruo had missed. I looked anxiously over him. He was slumped backward in my hands, unconscious, but his breathing and heart rate was stable. He looked well fed, and bore no scars from his previous encounter with the two Aberrant titans.

Jean hesitantly approached me. "You feeling better Mikasa?"

I nodded mutely, wiping away the last of my tears.

Erwin walked up beside me. "The Garrison is sending over a wagon. Gerhardt and I will be following you back to HQ." He turned to the rest of the soldiers. "Team 3, find Petra and the others and resume your mission to liberate the village. Captain Levi will be in command in my absence. Reiner, go notify Levi and Team 1 of this change in command. the rest of you, back to your posts".

The wagon sent by the garrison clattered up to us. Erwin helped me get Eren on board, being careful not to hit his head on the frames. There were a few blankets in the corner, i folded one to use as a makeshift pillow and placed Eren's head on it, making sure he was lying comfortably.

The driver looked over at Eren with undisguised curiosity. "I thought he went missing in action."

"Well, we just found him. Now drive." He shrugged and cracked the whip. Erwin took out a pencil and paper and began frantically writing something, probably some sort of report for the Capital. We sat in silence for most of the journey, interrupted only when Gerhardt offered me a cup of water.

As soon as i carried Eren in, the entire dining hall went silent for a moment, then exploded into shouted questions and arguments.

"Is that Eren?"

"I thought he was dead!"

"Where did he get the new clothes?"

"Quiet, all of you!" I snapped at them, and the dining hall fell silent again. I pushed by them, heading for the bunks, but i was stopped by Erwin, who grabbed my shoulder and lead me to the dungeon instead.

I turned to protest, but he cut me off, saying:"I know that you've never approved of him being in the dungeon, but we don't know what caused him to try to escape from us. Could be heat or hunger-based confusion, or he could be sick. No matter what, for the safety of everyone we have to make plans in case he acts up. Plus, he needs the isolation."

I huffed in resignation and carried him down the flights of cold stone steps into the dungeon, wrinkling my nose at the musty smell and dampness. How could Eren live here? As soon as he recovered i was going to march up to Captain Levi and demand he start making Eren's living area actually livable.

I entered Eren's dungeon and gingerly placed him into the bed, adjusting the blankets and pillows for a while to make sure he was comfortable. I heard the door clang open, and Gerhardt entered,followed closely by the medic.

We watched him for a few minutes while he ran basic tests, like taking Eren's pulse, checking his breathing rate and making sure that he did not have any internal wounds that we couldn't see.

"He is doing very well. His pulse and breathing is steady and stable, he doesn't seem to have any illness or injury, and he is well-nourished. He should be awake within the hour." I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled up a chair to sit beside Eren's bed.

"Ackerman." I turned to look at Erwin. " i need to finish my incident report. I trust that you and Gerhardt can handle this?" I nodded. I can probably take care of Eren better without anyone nearby.

But just as Erwin was about to leave, the bed creaked, and Eren pushed himself up, groaning and massaging his temples. I leaned forward and grabbed his hand, and Erwin, Gerhardt and even the guard outside looked at him in concern.

"Eren! How are you feeling?"

He shook his head slightly and looked up at me. A spark of confusion flickered across his face. "I-I'm sorry, but wh-who are you?"

And with those six words my heart shattered all over again.


	4. Sadness for Most, Confusion for One

Mikasa's POV

As soon as the words left his mouth the entire room seemed to stop. I could sense Erwin stiffen beside me, stunned, and i heard Gerhardt mutter "What?" under his breath.

"I-Im Mikasa, remember? I'm your sister, we grew up togethe-"

He drew back from me. "I don't have a sister."

I blinked, willing my heartbeat to slow. No, he's joking. Or maybe he's still delusional from just waking up. I desperately searched his eyes for a sign, any sign of mirth or blurriness, but all i see reflected back at me is apprehension and confusion.

I swallow, trying to clear the lump that is forming in my throat. "Maybe we should-"

I feel a hand on my shoulder. Erwin pulls me back slightly and leans forward to address Eren.

"Eren, do you remember who I am?" His tone is much more cautious and hesitant than usual, and his eyes are full of alarm.

A frown crosses Eren's face. "No, i don't."

My hands clamp tighter around his, causing him to wince. "Eren, what are you talking about? He's Erwin, the commander of the Survey Corps. How could you not remember him?" Tears begin pooling in my eyes, threatening to spill out. "How could you not remember me?"

Looking alarmed, he pulls his hand out of mine. "I'm sorry, but i honestly have no idea who the both of you are. I just met y-"

A wail escapes my throat and i grab on to his shoulders, the tears that have been pooling in my eyes now spilling out. I feel my lips moving and know that i am yelling something at him, but I can't hear them, I can only see Eren frantically shaking his head and trying to back away from me. I feel hands trying to pull me away from him, but i ignore them. He struggles, and i see him lift a hand to his mouth.

A searing pain flares in my arm, and everything fades into darkness.

…..

"I'm sorry for injecting you with the anesthetic Mikasa, it was the thing we had on hand to calm you down." Gerhardt looked apologetically at my arm, which was still numb. "The numbness should wear off in a few hours.".

I don't acknowledge him, and after a few seconds of standing around he retreats back to his own lunch table. From beside me came the sound of footprints.

"No Armin, your leg isn't fully recovered!"

The blond burst through the doorway, ignoring the medic chasing after him and wincing as he hit his still bandaged knee on the door frame. His eyes were brighter and more full of hope than i had seen since Eren's disappearance, but they dulled significantly when he saw me.

I understood why. He probably expected to see Eren sitting at his usual spot, his comrades crowding around him while i pushed them away. Probably the last thing that he expected to see was the same sight that had haunted him for the three months of Eren's disappearance, me sitting down mourning Eren, ignoring nearly everything around me.

"Mikasa, what happened?" He looked around. "Why isn't Eren with you? Is he-"

"Eren's fine." My head snaps over to Jean, whose eyes widen in shock. How can he say Eren is fine in his current state?

"Physically! Physically, i mean." he quickly says, then winces. "However, mentally he isn't… doing that well."

Confusion flickers across Armin's face. "What do you mean?"

"He, well, he can't remember some things."

"What things can't he remember? Does he remember who we are?"

And with that i snapped.

"NO, HE DOESN'T!" Armin's eyes widen in shock, and the people in the seats beside me practically fly back. "He doesn't remember you, he doesn't remember me,he doesn't remem- member" and my words trail off into a painful sob. Armin sits down beside me and pats me on the shoulder, comforting me, but i can't being myself to look at him, instead staring at the floor, wamr trails of tears flowing down my cheeks.

"Erm, is this a bad time?"

I turned around. Standing behind me, flanked by two guards, was Eren.

…..

Armin's POV

The first thing i notice is how heavily restrained he is. He is handcuffed, and attached to his face is a muzzle, probably to prevent him from biting his hand to shift. Attached to his feet is another set of chains, long enough to walk in but too short to allow him to run. Behind him are two nervous looking guards, both holding guns.

He walks up awkwardly to the table, a tray balanced precariously on his fingertips. He motions to the empty seat beside me. "Can i sit down?"

I nod, and he sits down, silently pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and handing it to me. I give it to Mikasa, and she hesitates for a while before taking it and giving an infinitesimal nod as thanks. As soon as her head dips he turns back and begins eating, his guards standing behind him, keeping their weapons at the ready. The muzzle has a small hole for him to eat, but it's so small that he has to awkwardly tear his food into tiny pieces.

An uneasy silence descends across the dining hall. Most of the soldiers are shooting Eren looks, ranging from nervous to curious. But Mikasa doesn't, instead staring resolutely at her plate with a controlled expression on her face, trying to prevent another breakdown.

After five minutes of that Eren puts down his sandwich and nervously coughs.

"So, your name is Armin?" He paused for a moment. "I mean, i just heard people call you that so i'm pretty sure it is, but…" he trails off, looking uncertain.

I blinked in disbelief. So he really doesn't remember any of us. I mean, it wasn't that i didn't trust Jean and Mikasa, but i had hoped that, well, they were wrong about his memory loss.

I nod. "Yes, that's my name."

He discreetly motioned to Mikasa. "What's her name then?" I knew that he didn't mean for her to hear it, but as soon as he said it a pained whimper escaped her throat.

"She's Mikasa."

"Mikasa." He savors the name, deliberately exaggerating the pronunciation as if he is trying his hardest to memorize it. "Then who's the guy with no hair?"

The rest of the meal is a mix of awkward silence and Eren asking me about the names of the other people at our table. The others all shoot him glances, as if they want to say something to him but are too nervous to. I can tell that he's distracted by something as well, his eyes look deep in thought and most of his interactions are half-hearted.

But i only found out what it was at the end of our meal. As we all got up he takes a breath, as if steeling himself for something, and tapped Mikasa on the shoulder.

"Um, Mikasa?"

She turns around to look at her foster brother. He coughs nervously, twiddling with the chains on his hands, and i can see a faint dusting of red across his cheeks.

"Could you come meet me in the dungeon tonight?".

Wait what.

{ Um, surprise! This is the introductory chapter for my fanfiction's OC, Leola Asturias. This fanfic will have a sort of love triangle between Eren, Mikasa and her, though the endgame will probably be Eremika[no promises tho ;) ] }

Leola's POV

"So you're asking us to leave him?"

I pace back and forth agitatedly in front of the campfire, ignoring the gaze of my companion.

I couldn't believe it. First he asks Eren, a novice with less than three months of shifting experience behind him, to come along on this dangerous scouting mission. Then, when we notice an opportunity to scout the interior of the wall, he sends Eren rather than going himself, even though he has been a scout for 20 years. And now that Eren was captured on a mission that he wasn't even supposed to do, he isn't even going to rescue him?

"Who knows what they could be doing to him? They could be interrogating him, torturing him, experimenting on him, or worst!" I wheeled on my companion. "Eren could be bleeding to death as we speak, and you won't even-"

"Look!" He interrupts, "Unless every soldier on those walls of theirs are both blind and deaf, i highly doubt that they would miss a 60 meter tall titan kicking a hole in their last line of defense."

He stood up and placed his hands on my shoulders. I tried to shake him off but he held firm, forcing me to look at him. "I care for Eren too, but we are in no shape for an offensive attack into the wall. There must be thousands of troops in there, and there are only two of us. Worse, we don't even know where they're keeping him."

He signed and let go of my shoulders. "I've already sent word back to the Citadel for additional aid. They should be here in less than a week." He sat down on the log, and pulled out a cigar. "Eren is an intelligent kid. He can survive that long, surely."

I'm still shaking with anger, but i knew that he's right. Neither of us are part of the army, and even if we were we couldn't just fight our way in until we found him. I turned around. Just over the horizon i could see the Wall, by now fully repaired. The same walls imprisoning my best friend.

Don't worry Eren, we'll get you out of there.


	5. Regaining

**Authors Note:** You know that feeling when you come up with a really awesome conversation and you want to put it in but then you realize that it doesn't fit anywhere and you spend the next 3 days trying to restructure your fanfic and it takes someone physically destroying your overcomplicated mindmap to make you realize it won't fit and you finally upload your next update? Anyone?

Eren's POV

 _"Hey Leola?"_

 _"Hm?"_

 _"Why were you so pissed at Soren just now?" She held up her hand and dashed for the next tree, while i followed close behind. We were trying to be as stealthy as possible. There were no troops guarding this part of the wall, but better safe than sorry._

 _We stopped, and she looked at me incredulously. "Come on, don't tell me you bought all that nonsense he spewed trying to justify why he's sending you to scout out the interior of the Wall rather than going himself. Eren's titan form is more stealthy than mine, my ass. He probably just wanted to smoke more of those damned cigars of his while making you take all the risk."_

 _"Awww" I placed my hand over my heart and faked wiping away a tear. "You do care about me."_

 _She snorted."I care about you not screwing up this mission and revealing the existence of the Citadel to the Wall-dwellers. The last thing we want is-" she paused while we sprinted to the next cover, a fairly large rock "-several hundred thousand angry Germans knowing that there exists an entire town of Titan you imagine what would happen if they found out we exist, knowing that they kill titans on sight?"_

 _"I can imagine that it would involve a lot of blood and screaming."_

 _"Be serious, what you're imagining isn't far from the truth." Her expression softened. "Be on your guard, they've likely moved troops to counter the titans surging through the wall so the concentration of troops will be very high. You might get wounded, captured, or worse."_

 _"Don't worry, if they pull my fingernails out they'll grow back."_

 _"Eren."_

 _"And if i do break I'll be sure to give them a false name."_

 _"Eren!"_

 _"Yeah yeah, i'm kidding, relax." I patted my pockets, making sure all my supplies were still stored snugly in there._

 _"Welp, here we are."_

 _I looked up at the wall. It was actually really impressive looking, a 50 meter tall slab of what looked like marble, stretching out both sides for as far as the eye could see._

 _"Well, wish me luck. Hopefully when i see you next I'll still be in one piece."_

 _She swatted me on the arm. "Just be careful, ok? We didn't save you just so that you could get yourself captured again."_

 _I grinned."Of course not." and brought my arm up to my mouth to shift._

"Eren!"

With a start, i woke up, blinking away the sleepiness from my eyes. Mikasa was standing in front of me,her eyes wide with shock.

Looking down, i saw that my hand was inches away from my mouth, and Mikasa's was gripping on to it. Judging by her concerned expression and the terrified guard outside, i had tried shifting in my sleep.

"What's going on? Why were you about to shift?"

I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, i was, um, dreaming." _Dreaming about possibly the last conversation I'll ever have with my friends._

A pang of sorrow shot through me. What were they doing right now? Soren was probably hard at work planning my rescue, he didn't show it, but i knew he genuinely cared about the lives of his men. And Leola. She was probably tearing her hair out in worry by now over my capture, probably thinking that i am too incapacitated to fight, or worse. And instead here i am, willingly staying in the HQ of one of our worst enemies.

I realized that the room was awkwardly quiet, and i looked up at Mikasa, who was still looking at me expectantly.

I cleared my throat. "Um, take a seat." she looked around the room before realizing that the only furniture in it was the bed I was sitting on. She walked up to it and hesitated, as if not sure how close to sit to me.

"It's ok, sit as close as you want to." She gave me a slight nod and sat about a foot away from me.

"So," I reached up and self-consciously ruffled my hair, trying my best not to let the awkward silence fill the room again, " i guess you're wondering why i asked you to meet me."

She nodded, and i took a deep breath.

"I want to know."

She cocked her head slightly. "About?"

"Everything."

When she continued staring at me with a blank expression on her face, i signed. "Look,for the past three months I've had literally no idea who i am. My childhood, my family, not even how old i am. The only thing i do remember is my name, and I'm not even too sure about that." I paused. "It is Eren, right?"

"Yes."

"Then i come here and suddenly everybody here seems to know me from another life, a life which i have literally no memory of."

I let my hands fall to my lap. "I just, well, i want to find out who i am, and judging by your reactions, you seemed to know me the best. So yeah, um, who am i?"

She took a deep breath of her own and said:"Your full name is Eren Jaeger. You're 15, you'll turn 16 in a few months. You are part of the Survey Corps, an organization created by our nobles to explore outside the walls."

I nodded. "Um, do i have any family in the walls?"

She hesitated before replying. "You did."

I blinked. "Oh." I feel the awkward atmosphere seep back into the room. I briefly consider asking her for details, but i can tell that she is still wracked with grief over my memory loss. _She's cried enough for one day._

So i decide to ask her something else. "How did i meet you?"

She doesn't speak for a moment, and i consider backtracking before she answers,but in a shaky voice :"When i was 9, human traffickers came for me and my family. I was valuable to them because i was the last of my kind, the only Asian left. They killed my parents and," She paused, collecting herself for a moment"-and tried to kidnap me, to bring me to the Capital as a slave. But before they could, you rescued me, killing two of them before the third tried to kill you. I killed him, and later your father arrived with the Military Police to save us. Having just been orphaned, you adopted me and accepted me into your family." She grabbed at her scarf, twisting the worn out fabric between her fingers. "On that day, you gave me this scarf."

"Wow. I must have meant a lot to you."

"You did." Her voice was soft and solemn, and i could tell that she was struggling to control her emotions. On impulse i shift beside her and wrap my arms around her in a hug.

I feel her tense up in surprise, and she glances at me, her eyes questioning.

"Well, i'm not Eren, at least not the Eren you knew, but i can at least… comfort... " I trail off, not knowing how to explain my intentions, that i can't understand her pain because i don't remember, but i can at least give her the comfort of physical contact with the person she cares about most. But she seems to accept it, and in facts snuggles up slightly closer to me. We sit there for the next 20 minutes, in comfortable silence, ignoring the guard self-consciously trying not to stare at us. I feel her steadily growing calmer, but i don't let go.

"So, um, how did i meet Armin?"

Levi's POV

"And after that, i want to see just how much weight he can lift in his Titan form. My hypothesis is about 300 tonnes, since that's how heavy the rock he lifted to plug the Wall Rose hole was, and that seemed to be his absolute limit. And i was also thinking, with Erwin's and your permission of course, to maybe try knocking him out and-"

I growled. "Hey Shitty Glasses, we just learnt that Eren is still alive yesterday, how about you start planning experiments after we make sure he's ok."

Hanji looked confused. "Whether i plan my experiments now or later has no effect on Eren's well-being at all, so why do you want me to wait til later?"

"Because- ah nevermind." i turned and focused on the road, trying to suppress the annoyed tic in my eye.

To say that i was shocked when the news reached me would be an understatement. I had watched Eren get carried away by some of the most powerful Titans i had ever encountered, and he wasn't exactly in the best condition when they did. My mind was burning with questions the entire way back. How had he escaped? Where has he been these three months? How has he survived?

Does he blame me for not saving him?

I rode into our HQ, my team following behind me. Dismounting, i motioned for the soldiers standing guard to bring the horses to the stables. Leaving debriefing to my squad, i walked down the corridors into Erwin's office, Hanji following close behind. Erwin was sitting at his desk, a drink in his hand, looked up as we entered.

"I take it the mission was a success."

"The three villages are secure. We suffered no deaths, but we have two casualties, one twisted his ankle, the other's leg is broken. Neither is in serious condition."

"Good. Any lost equipment?"

"One 3DMG was damaged. The recruit missed her shot and fell. She's unhurt, and the damage to the equipment is minor, only light repairs will be necessary."

"Excellent. The nobles will be pleased."

"They better, risking the lives of my men while the Military Police sits on their asses doing nothing." I looked out the window. "Where's Eren, i didn't see him on my way here."

"He's in the dungeon, with recruit Ackerma-"

As soon as the words left his lips Hanji snatched up her bag carrying her notes and equipment and ran out the door.

"Hey, Shitty Glasses, what do you think you're doing?"

"Advancing our knowledge of science!" came the reply.

Erwin gulped down the drink he had and stood up from his desk. "Come on, let's get down there before Hanji hacks Eren apart with a axe."

Mikasa's POV

"Really? He did all that to her over a potato?"

"Yes, all over a potato."

Eren let out a quiet chuckle, "No offense but this Shadis guy sounds like a total psycho."

I gave him a tired smile in return. "None taken, that's what everybody thinks."

I blinked, trying to clear the tiredness from my eyes. I could tell from the sky that it was several hours past our curfew, but i ignored it, not wanting to spend any more time away from Eren than i needed to.

"Hang on,I'm sorry but i'm tired." He shuffles back, and i follow, until we're leaning against the wall. I can tell from his eyes that he's exhausted, and i yawn, not feeling any fresher than him.

His head droops before he starts himself awake. "If you don't mind, could we continue this in maybe five minutes…"

I close my eyes, giving him a slurred "Sure." before drifting off to sleep.

…

"Ahem".

I opened one eye, Levi was standing a few feet in front of me, his face as impassive as ever, Hanji was standing beside him, grinning from ear to ear, and Erwin was behind them, looking slightly affronted.

"Commander? Captain?" I rubbed my arm across my eyes in a vain attempt to wake myself up. "Why are you all here?"

Levi simply raised one eyebrow at me. "Quick to make up for lost time are we?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, until i pushed myself up and realized that somebody's arms were wrapped around me. I turned around and saw a familiar German boy, and i realised that i was sleeping on him.

I squeaked in embarrassment. "No, it-its not what it looks like!" I hastily tried to push myself off him, but accidentally elbowed him in the stomach, waking him up.

He let out a pained groan and shook his head, rapidly blinking the sleepiness out of his eyes. As soon as he realized what was going on he yelped and scooted quickly away from me, his face the color of strawberries.

"Um, it's not what it-"

"Save it brat." Levi rolled his eyes. "You better do a damn good job of cleaning once you get back into action."

Eren frowned. "I have to clean for you?"

Levi raised his eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Eren turned and whispered to me. "Um, who is this, and does he have the authority to speak to me like that?"

I heard a growl and Levi stepped forward. "Hey brat i know that you're pissed at me for interrupting your fun but this is crossing the line."

"Levi." Erwin walked up to him and Hanji and grabbed their soldiers, pulling them in and whispering into their ears. I caught the words memory, confused and lost.

Levi blinked in surprise, and his eyes filled with a variety of differing emotions. As soon as Erwin leaned away he crossed his arms and stared at the ground, deep in thought, as if trying to think of the best way to respond  
to this news.

Hanji's reaction however, was much less dignified.

"Oh my god!" she opened her bag, whipped out a pen and notepad, and lunged towards Eren, who reeled back in shock.

"How does it feel? Do you still remember how to shift? And how did you lose your memory, was it by concussive force or-"

Levi grabbed her head and forced her to look at him. "If you're going to interview him, Shitty Glasses, don't scare the living daylights out of him while doing it, especially when he doesn't remember you or your methods!"

"But i haven't had a chance to interview someone with amnesia for months!"

Levi dragged her to the cell door. "Hey, Moblit,you there?" Hanji's brown haired subordinate nervously stepped into my line of view.

"Escort her back to her bunk, and make sure she doesn't come anywhere near Eren without my or Erwin's express command!" Moblit nodded and began to lead her out, ignoring her indignant "B-But science!"

Levi signed and turned back to me. "Recruit Ackerman, return to your bunk immediately, it is past curfew. And report to my office first thing tomorrow morning, for report submission and… disciplinary hearing."

 _Sina help me._


	6. Intertwining Part 1

**Reiner's POV**

"So they have sealed the breach in the Wall?"

I looked up from my tea. The light dancing off the fire illuminated Zeke's glasses, giving him a sinister, almost creepy air. "Yes Warchief."

"Did it achieve our desired goals?"

"Yes. Due to the relatively isolated location of the breach, they have sent small garrisons to guard every town and city in case it happens again."

"Good. How large of an impact has this had on the units in the four districts?"

"Well, i'm not sure for all of them, but the one nearest to Survey Corp HQ has lost around half its strength."

Zeke nodded approvingly. "Take heart my warriors. With their units scattered around the Walls our attack will succeed with ease." He paused, as if picking up something on mine and Bertholdt's expressions. "Something is still troubling you two. What is it?"

I looked at Bertholdt, who placed down his empty cup before speaking:"Chief, Eren, he's back inside the wall."

Zeke leaned forward, interested. "He is? He escaped from those Titans then?" I knew which ones he were talking about, the ones we had encountered when we had captured Eren. We had been moving for 15 minutes before we encountered them. Two aberrant titans, one about 10 meters tall with massive, bony forearms that forced her to walk like a gorilla, the other was a 12 meter class with a mouth full of sharp, serrated teeth.

They had attacked us on sight. We managed to kill the latter, but another white haired 15 meter with a bloated abdomen showed up and spewed some sort of acid which melted the armor off of me, forcing us to withdraw, leaving Eren behind to them.

"Apparently."

"Well, this is certainly an unexpected development. It is a good thing he does not know that the two of you are shifters."

I frowned. "That won't be a problem Chief, he has lost his memory. He still knows how to shift however."

His eyebrows rose in surprise. "In which case he will be no threat."

"But Chief-"

"I have told you, this is of no concern to us. How likely do you think it is that he will fight alongside strangers to defend a place he has no memory off. The fools in the Military are probably treating him with suspicion, deepening his distrust of them. As long as we move quickly, before he has the time to form any bonds with the other recruits, he will most likely flee or only defend himself."

He tilted his head back, finishing his tea. "Head back to your Headquarters. Sunrise is in a few hours, we cannot arouse any suspicion until our attack. We attack in 5 days time, when i have amassed sufficient titans."

Bertholdt and i answered in unison. "Yes chief." As we packed up, i spotted a flash of reddish-orange hair in the bushes near us.

"Chief!" Before we could react, a bolt of lightning shot down, and the girl was now on the back of a 15 meter tall titan, which turned and bolted.

I recognized the titan, it was the same one that had fought us for Eren.

 **Leola's POV**

It was about an hour before Soren stopped. The sun was about to rise soon, we needed to make camp in the trees before the titans became active. Unlike at night, when we could camp freely on the ground, we had to keep to the trees in the day.

I picked out a tree that was perfect for our needs, tall, sturdy, and with few branches other than the one we would be camping on. Soren lifted me up, standing on his toes, and partially exited his titan form. I hurled down a rope, and pulled him free from the form and onto the branch.

I collapsed on the branch, gasping. I had no idea how someone with the bodybuild of an emaciated tree could weigh that much, but Soren somehow managed.

"Well, we now at least know Eren is still alive."

I sat up. "Yeah, but we don't know what state he's in, nor do we know what they're doing to him or even where they're keeping him."

He spread out a sheet and sat on it. "But the two of them were from the branch of the military that handles external exploration. I recognize the emblem on their back, I've seen it sometimes. I doubt they will keep him in any old dungeon, he must be held in their most secure ones. Their most secure ones are all underground, and i can only think of two currently in use, the Survey Corps HQ and the one in the Capital."

"So what's our plan then?"

He signed, rummaging through his bag. "The quickest we can expect substantial military intervention is in a week's time, 6 days if they rush. We don't have a choice, we'll need to strike when the Hometowners launch their attack."

"You mean we-"

"I mean we will sneak in under chaos of the fighting and find him. Our clothes look something like theirs,we can blend in easy enough. We need to,otherwise they'll move him deeper in and we'll never be able to extract him save direct invasion, and our generals aren't going to sanction one over a single scout. Risky as it is, we need to pull him out when the attack commences."

I nodded, understanding that this would be our only and best chance to save Eren.

"So it's settled then, we'll strike when they do." He held out his hands, and i looked over to see he was holding out two oiled paper packets. "Apple or strawberry?"

 **Levi's POV**

I looked up from my paperwork. Standing by my half-open door was recruit Ackerman. I pushed away the forms i was currently signing. "Ackerman, come in."

She walked stiffly into the office, her expression guarded.

"Please, sit down." She pulled back the chair and sat down. She immediately drew into an upright, overly formal position and looked at me, unmoving. If seen from afar she could be mistaken for a statue.

"Relax Ackerman. I'm not going to bite." She relaxed slightly, and i picked up my pen. "Alright, let us begin. Why were you in Eren's room?"

She re-stiffened instantly. "He asked for me."

"I see. Did he say why?"

"He said that he wanted to know about his past, now that he has amnesia."

"Fascinating. So i assume his past involves the two of you sleeping together?" As soon as the words left my mouth she sputtered and her face turned the color of her scarf.

"It-it wasn't what it looked li-it wasn't like-!"

I leaned forward. "Then what was it then?"

"Well-"

We're interrupted by a knock at the door. I look up to see Eld standing at the door, holding a stack of documents in front of him.

"Levi, orders from the Capital, and also proposals from Hanji."

"Thank you Eld, leave them there." I paused for a moment. "Where is Eren now?"

"In the mess hall, with the other recruits."

I nodded and gave him a nod to dismiss him.

"Um, Levi, if you don't mind me asking, why are we letting Eren roam so freely?" Ackerman spun around, her eyes blazing at the mere suggestion that Eren was untrustworthy. "I mean, not that i dont trust him, but it seems… somewhat risky to just let him walk… around…" He trailed off as Ackerman continued to glare at him.

I turned to Ackerman. "Leave, we'll continue after lunch."

"But-"

"Ackerman, leave us."

She gave me a reluctant nod, got up from her chair and walked out.

I massaged my temples. "To be honest with you Eld, this was Erwin's idea. We're interrogating Eren later today, to find out where he's been since he disappeared. Erwin decided that it would be best for Eren to feel as comfortable as possible around us, so that coaxing answers out of him later will be easier."

 **Armin's POV**

I sawed at the pinkish slab of meat on my plate, popping the piece into my mouth. The Survey Corps had ordered an additional shipment of pork chops as celebration for managing to find Eren. It was good meat too, fresh, tender and juicy. But my thoughts were too jumbled to fully appreciate the rare treat in front of me.

Rumors had already begun to spread about Eren's return. Some thought he was faking his amnesia. Others thought an external organization outside the walls had recruited him, and he was here as a spy. Some even thought that we had faked his disappearance to increase funding.

I stabbed my knife into my meat in frustration. _For the past few weeks we've had to bandage our minor wounds with newspapers and they think we-_

"Hey, you ok?" I look up to see Eren looking at me, concern in his eyes. "You look like you want to use that knife on something more alive than our pork chop."

I force out a small smile."Nah, I'm fine."

"Hey Eren!" Sasha leaned forward, her plate already empty, and pointed at his still untouched bread. "Are you going to eat that?"

Eren pouted. "Well, um, actually i-" But he was interupted when Mikasa grabbed her own uneaten bread and stuffed it into Sasha's mouth, satisfying the girl, who sat back down and begin scarfing it down.

Eren looked at Mikasa with an amused expression, before turning to me and whispering loudly. "I'm now 100% sure she has a stuffing-bread-into-people's-mouths fetish."

I let out a laugh, and Mikasa's face reddened slightly.

"Eren! That's so mean!"

He placed a hand on his chest, pretending to be offended. "Mean? How do you think i feel, knowing that you're probably getting off whenever i'm eating bread?" causing her eyes to widen and her face to redden even more.

He smiled at her reaction and speared another piece of pork with his fork. Due to safety concerns he hadn't been given a knife, so Mikasa insisted on cutting his meat up for him, which was making Jean very envious.

"So Eren, why exactly is someone like you eating in the mess hall?" Mikasa's face flushed with anger, but before she could say anything Eren snorted.

"Says you. Shouldn't you be eating in the stables with your family?"

Several of the recruits struggled to hide their laughs and nostalgic smiles. Even with amnesia Eren was still calling Jean a horseface.

Eren grinned and stuffed the pork into his mouth. His face twisted into an expression of disappointment. "Not that I'm complaining about meat, but they couldn't have added some flavor? It's like I'm chewing on textured water."

Jean huffed."Salt is really expensive Eren, count your lucky stars they gave you a meat portion with the rest of us."

Eren looked confused. "What do you mean salt is expensive? There's a nearly endless supply of salt, it's called the ocean."

I choked on my meat. Coughing, i quickly gulped down some water to clear my throat before looking at Eren.

"Eren, you've-you've been to the ocean? You've seen the ocean?"

He gave me a confused nod. "Yeah. Bit hard to miss it don't you think?"

I looked around me and saw the rest of the recruits staring at Eren, all of them as shocked as i was.

"Where did you see it?"

"It's just a few miles north of the Ci-" As soon as those words left his mouth his eyes widened and he looked horrified, as if he had just told everyone the world's deepest, darkest secret.

Mikasa placed her hand on Eren's shoulder. "Eren, just where exactly have you been since we lost you?" Eren laughed helplessly, his eyes darting back and forth as if he was desperately hoping to be somewhere, anywhere else, to avoid answering the question.

I heard horses trot up to the door,and six people walked through the door. Judging from their uniforms it was the 4th Team, which had been held back in a village as a garrison after our previous operation. Many of the recruits turned to the door to welcome our arrivals. Eren turned with them, evidently grateful for the distraction.

But the moment he laid eyes on Reiner, who was part of the team, his expression changed from one of nervous helplessness into one of barely contained fury, causing Reiner to freeze at the doorway.

"Eren? Eren you oka-"

He growled, and snatched the steak knife out of my hand and threw it at him. Reiner yelled in alarm and ducked, but the knife still managed to leave a good sized cut on his neck.

He looked at Eren with alarm. "Eren! What's gotten into you?"

Eren snatched up another knife and charged at Reiner. His guard tried to restrain him but Eren kicked him aside. He lunged at Reiner with such force that when they connected the two of them flew a few feet out the door. Reiner grabbed the knife with one hand and held back Eren with the other, wrapped his legs around his assailant's body and hurled him away. He landed on a nearby bush, which cracked under his weight.

Eren got up, staring at Reiner with absolute hatred in his eyes. "Traitor."

With that he rammed his hand into a splintered branch, and a bolt of yellow lightning shot down.

 **Levi's POV**

"So what are we waiting for, again?"

Erwin looked up from his paperwork. "What?"

"You, me and Hanji are all present, so why haven't we started Eren's questioning?"

"The nobles have insisted that a high-ranking commander from another branch be present during the questioning, as they don't want only Survey Corps members with him. They wanted to send a Military Police commander here, but i convinced them to send a Garrison one instead. Therefore, Dot Pixis has been ordered here to help with the questioning. We'll start after he arrives."

"Well that drunken fool sure is taking his time isn't he?"

"Levi, it hasn't even been 24 hours."

But we were interrupted by a sudden, massive explosion from outside that shook the building, causing ripples in my cup of tea.

"What the hell? What's going on out th-" I was answered by the familiar roar of Eren's titan form.

Hanji's head poked into Erwin's office. "They started experimenting without me?" I ignored her and ran to the window.

Eren's titan form was rampaging through the forest, chasing a terrified Reiner, who was desperately grappling from tree to tree. As i watched, a bone tipped tendril ( since when did he have that?) shot out and felled several trees, almost taking Reiner with them had Bertholdt not shot in at the last second and caught him.

If anything Bertholdt's appearance seemed to enrage Eren even more. He grabbed a fallen tree and swung at them, and would have hit them if Ackerman hadn't swung in and sliced at his arm, disrupting the swing.

I growled and ran for my office. Snatching up my 3DMG, i hastily attached it to my body and rushed for the exit. I had no idea what was causing Eren to attack his comrades, but i needed to stop him before he did anything drastic.

As i dashed out the door, i spotted Reiner and Bertholdt desperately running towards HQ, having run out of trees to grapple to, Eren close behind them. Some of the recruits had tried to stop him, judging by the several people tangled up in the trees or lying in the bushes and the smoking wounds on the 15 meter class.

Eren roared and brought his fist down on Reiner, who just managed to leap out of the way, but colliding with Bertholdt as he did. The two tumbled over each other and lay there, groaning in pain, unable to move as Eren reached down to them.

Engaging my 3DMG gear, I flew towards him and I slashed at his hand,slicing away his fingers. He recoiled, and i used that movement to attack his left upper arm muscles, destroying the tendons and disabling the arm.

Eren roared and tried grabbing my 3DMG line, but i disengaged it and fell several feet, before reattaching it to his thigh and using the momentum to swing upwards. I fired my 3DMG at his nape, planning to use that to shoot forward and cut Eren o-

I felt the wind being knocked out of my lungs as i was suddenly pulled back, the force being so great that my swords were ripped from my hands.

I looked up and realized what had happened. At the last moment, Eren, the clever bastard, had used his tendril to block his nape, and as he whipped it away it dragged me back with it. I would have been impressed at his newfound skill, almost proud, if i wasn't the one dangling helplessly in front of a 15 meter class titan.

He lifted me up to his eyes, staring me down for a second, before he turned and hurled me into a nearby lake.

I gasped as my body hit the frigid cold water, drawing out the heat from my body. As i swam to the surface, i could faintly hear explosions, and several wires impaled themselves into Eren's titan form.

I gasped for air as my head broke the surface. I struggled to the shore, my 3DMG weighing me down. As i reached the edge, i was finally able to take a look and realize what was going on.

Set up in a loose semicircle around Eren were the same cannons and cables we had used to capture the Female titan, although slightly fewer in number. Judging from the piles of vegetation scattered around them Erwin had hidden them around HQ for the express purpose of capturing Eren should he go rogue. He roared and struggled fruitlessly against the wires, attached into all his appendages, even his tendril.

"Prepare to retract the cables from Gun 4!" Mechanical clicking began to emit from one of the guns. I traced the cables and saw that the gun was directly attached to Eren's nape. Eren realized this as well, his struggling growing more violent.

In a last ditch attempt to free himself another tendril shot out of his lower back, spun around and cut one of the two lines attached to his nape, just as Erwin gave the order to retract the cables. The cables were ripped out his body in a shower of pulverized Titan flesh and blood, but due to the missing cable, rather than Eren being torn out from the nape was planned it simply peeled back the flesh, exposing the Titan shifter.

"Get him out of there!" Several Corps members, myself included, hurled ourselves to his nape. His right tendril lashed out in an attempt to defend himself, but Petra managed to disable it. I landed on his nape, and pulled him out of his titan, before grappling to the ground and putting him down.

We all stood there for a moment, silent as we watched the shifter recover, before it was broken by an ear-splitting shriek from Hanji.


	7. Intertwining Part 2

**Author's Notes:** So recently i got a review from a user named wargrass01, asking if i can explain how Petra is still alive and Reiner is still part of the Survey Corps, when this is late enough into the story for Eren to have his hardening ability.

Indeed i can! The thing is, this fanfic actually takes place in a alternate universe. In this one Captain Levi's squad survived the encounter with the Female Titan, and Reiner's attempt to kidnap Eren never happened. Everything else is more or less the same,although with a few changes (Erwin still has both arms for instance, since he lost it trying to rescue Eren). There are some other tweaks of course, but they'll be covered later.

So, enjoy the story! _throws smokebomb which fails to explode_ Um, this is awkward. I'll just leave by the front door then. scurries away

 **Levi's POV**

I was sick and tired of seeing Hanji fawn over a piece of meat.

When we had pulled Eren out of his titan form, a slab of flesh about a meter long had stayed intact, even after the rest of the body had crumbled away. The damned Four-Eyes had squealed in excitement, passed out, then ordered Moblit to cart it away into her lab, where she had been locked away in the past 48 hours doing Sina knows what, emerging only to ambush us with some new discovery she had made.

"LLEEEEVVVVIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!"

I choked on my tea, coughing the blackish liquid all over my desk. I stared for a moment, saddened at the wastage of tea and irritated by the mess, before looking up and seeing the source of my irritation bouncing excitedly on its feet.

"What is it Shitty Glasses?"

"Levi! Levi! Look!" Hanji excitedly held out a pair of laboratory tongs. In them was a piece of blackened, charred meat about the size of my pinky.

"If you're this excited over a piece of charcoal, i should warn you that we have hundreds of them in a storeroom outside."

"No Levi, you don't understand!" she threw her arms up dramatically. "This is a piece of titan meat which i exposed to an open flame. It burned! Don't you see? Titan meat is flammable! The possibilities and implications are immense!"

I could see no implications other than the one that Hanji was probably a lousy cook.

"Welp, I'm sure you want to learn more Levi but science doesn't wait!" She practically skipped out my office, holding the tweezers like she's carrying the world's biggest diamond. I hear more enthusiastic ramblings drift in from outside as Hanji ambushed some other poor soul, and a few minutes later a dishevelled looking Gerhardt peeks into my office, clutching two thick forms.

"Um, Captain?"

"What is it?"

He walked up to my desk and held out one of them. "It's the status update from the Garrison. They have not found any trace of Reiner and Bertholdt since the incident. They're wondering if the Survey Corps wishes for them to continue the search, or move them to the list of deserters."

"That's not my decision to make. Bring it to Erwin."

"Yes sir." He holds up the other. "This one is from the Military Police, asking that we allow one of their officials into the interrogation."

"This one, i can decide." I grab the form and tear it up, before dropping it into a wastepaper basket. "Is that all?"

"Yes sir. But Captain," his eyes flicker to the ground. "Is Eren still unconscious?"

I nod.

"Then if you don't mind me asking sir, do you think that maybe Eren is faking his unconsciousness?" He wrings his hands and swallows nervously, rushing out the question."I mean, two days is a very long time to spend knocked out."

I pushed myself up from my seat, causing Gerhardt to stumble back. Conspiracies like these were already spreading across the Garrison and MP, i was not going to let them take hold in the Survey Corps as well.

"I think, Gerhardt, that it has been established quite firmly over the past two days that Eren's current state is genuine. I think you of all people will remember the multiple attempts that have been made to wake him. He is either the world's best actor or genuinely passed out, and we both know he is not that good an actor."

Gerhardt winced. Of course he remembered, he still had the bruises from restraining Ackerman when i had tried to wake Eren by cutting his arm.

I heard footsteps, and a panicked, sweaty Petra burst into my office, taking a few deep breaths to catch her breath before speaking.

"Eren's awake, they want you downstairs now for questioning."

 **Erwin's POV**

I sighed and buried my face in my hands. This was not going well.

"I'm telling you, i don't remember anything!"

I massaged my temples in a vain attempt to clear my rapidly developing headache, and judging by the way Levi was gritting his teeth and the fact that Pixis was on his third flask of alcohol, i knew they were feeling as frustrated as i was over the past hour of fruitless questioning.

Levi growled. "Don't try that bullshit with me Eren. I've done my fair share of interrogations, and i can tell when someone is withholding information. Now spill."

Eren abruptly stood up, as much as the restraints allowed him, causing the guards near him to point their weapons at him nervously.

"Make me."

Dot Pixis pulled out his flask and took a long swig from it. I briefly considered asking for some as well, before dismissing the thought.

"Look brat, don't make us resort to stronger measures."

He sat back down, much to the relief of the guards. "There's nothing you can do to me that i won't heal from."

Suddenly the cell door slammed open, causing everyone except Levi to flinch. Hanji walked in, holding a syringe filled with yellowish-brown liquid.

"Hi Eren! I'm here to give you your flu shot."

"Flu shot? But I'm not sick."

"Yes, but you've spent a considerable amount of time outside these walls. You could be carrying some sort of strange disease that you're immune to but we're not. Better safe than sorry after all." Eren looked slightly offended at the suggestion, but he held out his arm and let Hanji administer the shot.

My brows furrowed in confusion. Flu shot? We never had policy to give shots to outsiders coming in. We had never had any outsiders to give flu shots to to begin with. And if there was anybody who didn't have to worry about succumbing to external diseases, it was the Survey Corps.

Hanji finished administering the shot and walked out the door. As she left, she winked at us and shifted her fingers slightly, revealing the letters TRUT SERU IV, printed on the side of the syringe.

 _Truth Serum_. This particular type took a while to take effect. We needed to keep Eren talking and unsuspicious until it did.

I leaned forward, staring at Eren straight in the eye. "Ok Eren, since you can't answer these questions, we'll start simpler. Did you have a constant source of food, when outside the walls?"

He blinked in surprise, before reluctantly relaxing. "I hunted for animals, and i plucked wild fruit."

I nodded, noticing that he didn't give me a straight answer. "Where did you get the new clothes?"

"I made them."

"You made them?" Levi gave him a glare that was stern but not unkindly. "Eren, you expect me to believe that? You, who has never even so much as repaired a broken seam without poking his fingers full of holes? Did you really make them or did someone make it for you?"

"I-I" He bites his lower lip, as if trying not to say something. "Yes I made them, all on my own."

"So you've survived out there all on your own, without any memory of anyone within these walls?"

"Yes."

"In that case why did you attack Reiner and Bertholdt?"

At the mention of their names his face contorted in rage. "Because they're traitors." He slams his fists onto the table. "All of them! Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, they're all traitors! They betrayed the Citadel for the Stronghold! They-" His eyes widen as he realizes what he said.

"Eren, what are the Citadel and Stronghold?" Are they external factions, or fortresses of some sor-"

"I don't know anything."

Levi makes a sound of complete exasperation. "For fucks sake Eren, resisting us is one thing but at least try saying something new. You just blurted out that much info and you claim you don't know anything?"

Eren bites the side of his mouth. "I-I may have lied." The feeling of triumph surges through my body. _The serum, it's working._

"So Eren, what is the Citadel?" The room stills, the excitement and anticipation in it palpable.

"Its...Its a..." Suddenly his eyes widened. "That wasn't a flu shot was it."

I force my voice to stay calm. "What is the Citadel Eren?"

"What you gave me was some sort of truth serum!"

"Eren, what is-" I am cut off by a horrible cracking sound. I look down in horror at Eren's hands, which are clenched together in an attempt to fight off the serum's effects. Another cracking sound rang out as his leftmost knuckle bone broke, poking out from the skin.

"Eren!"

"I can'-I wo- It's a-" His eyes are wide and full of terrified panic.

"Erwin, i think we should reschedule this."

I make my voice gentle yet commanding. "It's ok Eren, you don't have to tel-"

"I won't betray my friends!" with that defiant cry Eren launched himself downwards. Levi desperately shot his hand out to catch his head, but failed to keep Eren from slamming his head into the table, knocking himself unconscious.

 **Mikasa's POV**

"Look, I'm sorry, if all you're here to do is interrogate me, I have nothing more to say to you."

I watch as Jean dejectedly shuffles out of the staircase door that lead to Eren's dungeon cell. As soon as he sees me his expression brightens and his face reddens slightly. "Hey Mikasa, I've got a favor to-"

I shake my head. "No Jean."

He frowns. "No?"

"I know what you're going to ask me, and the answer is no. I'm not going to question Eren, not when he's just recovered from a serious head wound.".

"No Mikasa, that's not what i mea-"

"You think i don't know that Erwin has asked several trainees to try to coax some answers out of Eren after his interrogation? You think i haven't seen Connie, Sasha and some of other recruits go down there and come back disappointed?"

Jean holds up his hands, hus expression pleading. "Look Mikasa, i get it. But aren't you curious at all? Eren has seen the ocean, Mikasa. Armin is going nuts right now, and-"

"I am curious Jean, but Eren's well-being comes first. He hasn't eaten in two days, we need to make sure he's healthy before asking him any questions.". Without waiting to see his reaction, i push by him, gripping the basket i carried down tighter.

I walk up to the door, which is now guarded by four heavily armed soldiers, all holding rifles and with pistols stuffed into their belts. Upon seeing me one of them pulls out a key and opens the door to Eren's cell.

He looks up at me, expression guarded as i enter. "I swear, if you're here to ask me where I've been, I'm going to-"

I hold up a placating hand. "Don't worry Eren, I'm not here to interrogate you." His expression softens as I hold up the basket i have in my hand. "I'm here to bring you food."

He looks slightly surprised. "Um, why?"

I huff. "You've been out for the past two days Eren, and you haven't eaten anything since." I open up the basket, which has half a loaf of bread and a canteen of water. I tear out a chunk from the loaf and hold it out to him. "Now eat."

"Ummm… I would if i could, but…" his eyes drift down to his arms, and only then do i notice that they're chained to the wall. They can still move, but the chains are too short to allow Eren to eat on his own.

"Oh." I tear off a smaller piece and slowly hold it out to him, bracing myself for the inevitable outburst. But to my surprise, he grabs my forearm, and gently sucks the bread off my fingers, his lips and tongue leaving traces of warmth on my skin.

My heart rate doubles, and i quickly retract my arm. I look away, trying to calm my beating heart.

The cell door opens, and Armin peeks in hesitantly, causing Eren's face to darken.

"Hey Eren." He walked in, carrying a plate with a hunk of cheese and a knife. He sat beside Eren and held it out to him with a soft smile. "I brought you this. It's a little bland to eat bread on its own."

Eren's expression morphed into one of scepticism. "You're not here to question me?"

"I don't want to force you to tell us anything you aren't prepared to tell us. Whatever it is, you'll tell us when you're ready."

"Oh." Eren gave a sheepish smile. "Thanks,i appreciate that."

We sat in silence for the next few minutes, the air punctuated only with the sounds of Eren chewing and me cutting up the cheese.

As Eren polished off the last bite of bread, Armin turned back to him. "Eren?"

"Hm?"

"You've seen the ocean, haven't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Could you describe it to me?"

Eren tapped his chin for a moment. "Well, the ocean is a huge expanse of water, stretching out as far as the eye can see, and it tastes salty. In places its so deep you can't see or even reach the bottom. Its color changes a lot too, it's not just plain blue, sometimes it's a dark, stormy grey, sometimes it's a bright vibrant turquoise. When there's no wind it's tranquil, like a mirror, completely calm and unmoving. Sometimes it's violent, turbulent, with waves almost as high as your walls…" He trails off when he notices that Armin's eyes are shining. "Armin? Are you- it wasn't even that good a description!"

"No! " Armin wiped at his eyes. "It's-It's just nice to hear it firsthand, from someone who has seen the ocean in person."

His eyes flicker over to the door. Two of the guards are dozing off, another is preoccupied with cutting her nails with a knife and the last is nowhere to be seen.

He lowers his voice. "Mikasa, Armin, can you guys keep secrets?"

My eyebrows shoot up. "Eren, what are you saying?"

He briefly glances at both of us. "If i tell you guys something, can you promise me you won't tell anyone else?"

I grab his hand gently. "Eren, it's ok if you don't want to tell us anything, we don't want to pressure you into telling us."

He shook his head. "You two have been nothing but kind to me since i got here. I don't want to keep seeing you two grasping for answers when i am in a position to give you most of them."

"Okay Eren." Both of us looked at him expectantly.

He took a deep breath. "The Citadel is a country of Titan shifters."

If i had been less surprised, i would have noticed the soft surprised gasp coming from underneath Eren's bed.


	8. Intertwining Part 3

**Levi's POV**

Hanji's hand impacted Petra's mouth a few seconds before mine. I wince as i accidentally hit the strawberry-haired member of my squad a little harder than i meant to, although luckily Hanji's hand absorbed most of the force.

Hanji hissed at Petra, her voice soft for once. "Petra, you know they can hear us too!"

"Sorry! I'm sorry, i was just-"

"Quiet down!" Erwin flailed his arm at us, listening intensely to the words coming out of the hole in the wall.

Erwin, Hanji, my squad and I were currently in a secret listening room, known only to us. It had been built years ago, to spy on the inmates, and was located one floor below the dungeons, connected to them by a series of tubes.

I let go of Petra's mouth and cursed myself internally when i realized how much i had missed.

"-is a shifter?"

"No, not the entire country. It's more like 15% of the population? I'm not sure, i was never told any official figures, but that's how it was in the military. Every sixth person i met was a shifter."

I looked over at Erwin, his eyes wide with alarm. We had enough trouble managing attacks from four shifters, now there was an entire army of them?

"You were in their military?"

"Yep, i was in the Reconnaissance Division. It's sort of like our equivalent of the Survey Corps."

"Is that why you were inside the walls?"

"Sort of, I was sent with my squad to gather information on you guys."

"Why? Why do you want information about us?"

From the tube came the sound of the door opening, causing Eren to cut off abruptly. "Arlert, Ackerman, your time is up." I curse under my breath, making a mental note to make that guard clean every latrine from here to the Capital.

"Goodbye, it was nice talking to the two of you."

"Bye Eren. Stay safe, ok?".

"Will you come visit me tomorrow?".

 _Yes, they will._

 **Erwin's POV**

I couldn't blame them for being nervous.

They had just watched Eren come back from the dead, and with more abilities and significantly more skilled than before. Then he attacked two of their squadmates with the intent to kill, and they had just watched Eren beat _Captain Levi_ , the Survey Corps(and by extension all of humanity's) strongest soldier.

I signed and let my eyes wander over the damaged landscape. According to eyewitness reports Reiner had wisely bolted the second Eren shifted, escaping into the forest. But, in his panic he had somehow circled back to HQ. Probably for the best, he was almost certainly doomed if he just tried outrunning Eren.

"Ok everyone, listen up. We're here to brief you on Eren's containment plan."

I let the murmur of excitement die down before continuing.

"Now, Eren is not only a valued soldier and an important asset, but he is also our friend, and i know some of you here may be adverse to such a plan." I scanned the crowd until i spotted recruit Ackerman, whose fists are clenched. "But considering recent events, it has been decided that it would be wisest to be prepared."

I pulled out a few sketches Hanji and her team had made and pasted it onto the briefing wall, as well as a map of the HQ and its surroundings. "Eren has shown remarkable skill in fighting off individual or small scale attacks. His two tendrils also give him a defensive advantage we have never seen before, giving him additional appendages to continue fighting even if his limbs are disabled."

"But, in both our cases of combat with him he has been defeated either through a simultaneous attack by a large number of soldiers,or with heavy weaponry that quickly delivered huge amounts of damage in a short amount of time."

"This is what we have some up with. In the event that Eren goes rogue, do not fight him if possible, instead lure him to an area with cannons or grappling guns. We have batteries located here and here, which will be manned around the clock. If this is not possible and engagement is a must then only attack if there are more than 8 of you. Two going for his legs, two for his arms, two for the tendrils, two for his nape. If your numbers are less than this do not attack, distract him until reinforcements arrive."

"Is that clear soldiers?"

"Yes sir!"

"Excellent!" I step back and Moblit walks forward.

"Announcement! For today there will be no training!

"What,no training?"

"But why?"

"Maybe the Corps is out of funding again?"

Moblit cleared his throat. "Due to the intensity of recent training, we are noticing large numbers of fatigue and injury cases in the Corps. Therefore today has been marked an official rest day. Your schedules will be left to you, to rest and recuperate as you see fit."

"You're dismissed!" The soldiers dispersed, many excitedly discussing what they wanted to do.

I stepped off the stage, towards where Levi's Squad and Hanji were standing. Out of the corner of my eye i could already see recruits Arlert and Ackerman running up to me to request another meeting with Eren.

"Go set up the room, I'll join you momentarily.". They all nod, salute and walk away, and i turn to address the two recruits running up to me.

 **Levi's POV**

I heard footsteps as Erwin walked into our room, before stopping dead in his tracks upon seeing what Hanji was doing.

"Hanji, don't you think that is a few too many pencils?" She had brought in writing materials, to record down everything that Eren said. I would have said that it was a good idea, if she hadn't already sharpened over four dozen pencils.

"Nonsense. One can never be too prepared." she finished sharpening the last pencil and placed it down on the pile, before pulling out another dozen from her bag.

"Really Four Eyes?" i reached down and lifted up the atlas sized stack of writing paper she had carried in. "We're recording what Eren is saying, not writing his biography."

"Who knows? We might!"

"Also, Levi, don't you think that's a bit risky?" I looked over at Erwin, who was frowning down at the ceramic teapot and teacup perched on a small wooden table in front of me. "I mean, the furniture in this room is not exactly new. I don't mind you bringing in food, but couldn't you use a more durable, less noisy alternative?". To prove his point, he gestures over to Gunther and Eld, who are holding wooden plates piled with bread and scrambled eggs.

"You try finding a wooden teapot."

"You could at least use a wooden cup."

"It makes the tea taste funny."

"Levi, I'm not asking you to completely give up tea, just tolerate having to use wooden cups for the few hours we'll be here."

"I'm putting up with this dirty-ass room Erwin, the least you could do is let me have pure-tasting tea." The room hadn't been used in years, and had fallen into disrepair. Even worse, to preserve the rooms secrecy Erwin had forbidden anyone from stepping into the room unless absolutely necessary, which meant i couldn't even clean it by myself. I shuddered as i scanned over the patches of moss on the walls.

Before we can argue any further Hanji interrupts us. "Ssshhhh! I think it's about time.". She slides out the wooden board covering the tube and sets it to one side, before grabbing one of her numerous pencils.

From the tube rings out the sound of the cell door opening, and we all immediately focus on the tube.

"Armin, Mikasa!"

"Eren!"

"Are you ok? Are they treating you well?"

Eren laughed easily. "Don't worry, they're treating me fine. Look!" I hear tinkling as Eren presumably held up the stack of bowls from his breakfast. "They gave me seconds."

"Wow, lucky. They only gave us one serving."

"Its probably because they gave me the leftovers. I could have used the stale bread they gave me as a hammer."

"At least you look full. You can still hear my stomach growling if you listen hard enough."

"Oh, you guys are still hungry?" I heard the sound of crinkling paper and some other material. "Do you guys want any?"

I heard a loud gasp from Arlert and an intake of breath from Ackerman.

"Is that chocolate?"

"Yep. Here, I've got two."

"How did you get this? Chocolate is really expensive, not even the officers get this!"

I begin tapping my finger on the chair, impatient. _Come on brats. I get that you've spent a lot of time apart, but stop with the small talk and give us something we can use._

"Eren, we can't take this from you!"

"No, really Mikasa it's ok, these are standard military rations, to be honest I'm getting a bit sick of them."

"You get chocolate as a ration?"

"Well, normally we only get like half a bar a day, but we recently got a larger amount, due to the danger of our special scouting mission."

"Why were you scouting the walls?" I leaned forward in my seat. _Here we go._

"I'm not too sure myself. Right now we're at war with another country called the Stronghold, as well as a few other smaller countries. I've been assigned to the front facing them since i can remember. But a few months ago they suddenly sent my squad eastwards to collect information about your Walls."

A pause. "You're not planning to invade us are you?"

For some reason Eren laughed. "Honestly Armin, i couldn't tell you. Our mission objectives were very broad, we were supposed to collect information on everything from the defense of your Walls to your living standards. I think it was just a normal mission to gather information."

"But are missions like this common?"

A pause. "Actually, now that you mention it i don't think I've ever heard of another mission to your Walls. I mean, we have garrisons in the districts, but never inside your…"

 _ccrreeeaaakkkkk_

I look down, just as the table, weakened by years of neglect and rot, gives way, sending my teapot crashing to the ground.

 **Reiner's POV**

I gaze over the titans gathered around us, some as small as 3 meters, others almost as tall as the tree I am perched on.

To this day i still wasn't sure how Warchief Zeke created titans. I had only ever observed it from afar, and he had never revealed even a hint of how he did it. But it didn't matter. I felt another surge of optimism as another dozen titans lumbered into the gathering spot, stopping a few feet from me and leaning against a tree. With this many titans at our disposal our next attack would be sure to succeed, even if the Survey Corps was in Trost when we attacked.

Soon our mission would be complete. Soon we could return home.

"Reiner!" I look over to Bertholdt, who's grappling towards me "you have to see this!"

"What is it?"

"Just follow me!" Activating my 3DMG gear, i shoot off after him. As we near the edge of the forest i can see that Zeke is already there, crouching in the branches of a large bushy tree and carefully peeking through the leaves.  
I land beside him,and peer out through the leaves.

About a kilometer away from the edge of the forest is a large encampment. It has about 30 people milling about,but judging from the large number of tents they are expecting much more. Brown sacks are stacked in a perimeter around the camp, and large guns on stands are arranged behind them behind them, which have belts of ammunition attached to them.

Arrayed a few meters behind are several cannons, although they look radically different from the ones mounted on the walls. They're completely metal, even the wheels, and have large metal plates attached to them. They also have a strange bar sticking out the back that looks like it could be hitched to horses.

But what is most alarming are the three titans milling around the encampment. Two of them are small, 6 to 7 meters at most, and don't seem to have any special abilities, helping to move supplies around. But a third is a 20 meter class, and encased from head to toe in thick grey stone. As i watch, he takes a step forward onto a rock, which immediately cracks and crumbles under his weight.

I look over at Warchief Zeke, who looks grim. "Chief, who are these people?"

He doesn't answer.

We watch them in silence for several more minutes, until another 15 meter class titan appears over the hill, with several more soldiers trailing behind him. Unlike most titans, it isn't skinless or have human-like skin, his skin looked more like leather, and was as black as the night sky. Two strange shaped wings are tucked behind its back, and its eyes were pupiless and pure red.

The new titan reaches down and hands a pole wrapped in fabric to two of the soldiers,who bring it to the center of the encampment and stick it into the ground. The fabric unfurls, revealing a yellow flag with some sort of purple bird painted on it.

Zeke turns to look at us. "Prepare yourselves Warriors, the war has come to the Walls."


	9. Intertwining Part 4

**R** **einer's POV**

 _Who the hell are these people, and how is their technology so advanced?_

These thoughts run through my head as the one of the titan beside me explodes in a burst of flesh, showering me with blood. Its limp body falls to the ground, where it's immediately torn to shreds by more cannon fire.

I hear metallic clanging, and realize that I'm being shot at. Two of the human soldiers are standing below me, firing at me in a brave but otherwise futile attempt to stop me. I swat at them, sending their limp bodies flying into the distance.

I grimace as their bodies land beside the steaming bodies of several dead titans.

Unlike those inside the walls, our enemies did not rely on 3DMGs, instead they used special guns and artillery. Unlike ours, which were ineffective against Titans, their guns could shoot small explosive charges that buried inside the titans and tore them apart from the inside, and were capable of firing many more bullets at a much faster rate. Because of this, our attack was not going well, despite Zeke's plan of staggering out the titans to disperse their firepower.

As if to confirm my thoughts, a 12 meter class steps forward, only to be blinded by a spray of gunfire and ripped apart by artillery shells.

"Reiner!"

The Winged Titan is charging towards us. Zeke hardens his right fist and swings at it, but it slices off Zeke's hand at the wrist and hurls him aside.

I lunge forward and tackles it to the ground. I attempt to drive my elbow into its jaw, but it uses its powerful left wing to knock me off of it.

About half a mile away from me, Bertholdt is being faced by the stone layered titan. It steps forward and drives a fist into his knee, punching directly through the tendons and causing Bertholdt to buckle to the ground. In retaliation he grabs the titan and hurls it away, sending it crashing through several trees.

Bertholdt begins to get back up, but two flying machines, 'planes' Zeke called them, dive in and fire at his eyes, distracting him. The stone-plated titan moves and begins grabbing nearby rocks and hurling it at the Colossal Titan.

I suddenly feel a heavy blow to my chest, and i stumble backward. My armor is undamaged, but it is smoking from the explosion of an artillery shot.

"He is armored!" I look down and spot a man standing by a smoking cannon, frantically signalling with a red flag.

"Not for long!" Another, larger built man in a more ornate costume yells. A large white sheet, which i had previously assumed was a tent, falls to the ground, revealing an enormous cannon. The barrel is at least 4 meters long, and is mounted on a massively complicated stand with six wheels. "It is time we introduced our guests to Big Bertha!" Men begin furiously turning cranks, and the cannon barrel turns to face me.

I charge for 'Big Bertha', trampling the smaller cannon underfoot in my bid to intercept them before they can fire. Meanwhile two men hastily push a large metal cylinder into a hatch and shut it, while the large built man stares at me as i near him.

He throws his hands down, and the cannon fires.

I am immediately hurled a distance back, my vision obscured by clouds of blackened smoke.

As the smoke clears, I look down in disbelief. My armor has been cracked, several pieces blown off completely, and chunks of my flesh are scorched as well.

As i get to my feet from somewhere beside me comes the sound of an explosion and a reddish light,and Warchief Zeke lands beside me. His left arm is completely missing and the fur around his left shoulder is on fire.

"Warriors, fall back!" He raises his intact right fist and slams it on the ground while roaring. Most of the remaining titans cease their attacks and converge to our position,while a small number charge forward as a screen to cover our withdrawal.

Bertholdt's titan releases a massive cloud of steam, causing the titan and planes fighting him to move away, anticipating an attack. But instead he shoots out the steam in human form, using it as cover to latch on to Warchief Zeke's arm.

Gathering up the remnants of our attack force, we retreat into the forest.

 **Eren's POV**

At the crash i leap from the bed, looking around for the source of the sound.

"What happened?" Mikasa looked over at my table. "Did you drop a plate or something?"

"No." The stack of dirtied bowls was still sitting on the table, intact.

 _That sound came from under the bed._

I drop to my knees, ignoring how damp and dirty the ground is, and reach out for a lamp, silently thanking whoever it is that authorized the removal of my chains. Holding out the lamp, i peer under the thin wooden frame of the bed.

The end of a listening tube stares back at me.

"Eren?" Mikasa drops to her knees beside me, and Armin follows suit. "What is it?" When i don't answer Armin joins me in looking under the bed. Maybe it's my imagination but in the dim light his face immediately pales.

"It's a listening tube."

Mikasa's head tilts. "What's that?"

"It's a tube that leads from one room to another, allowing them to listen to people in the other room, it's normally used for spyi-"

I stand up and back away as far as i can from him. "Did you know about this?".

Armin stares at me in disbelief.

"What?"

"Did you know about this?" With a trembling finger I slowly point at the space beneath my bed. "About the listening tube?".

He simply stares at me, dumbfounded.

"Eren, it's not what it looks like-"

"Then what is it then? A few hours after almost every other recruit tries to coax information from me, you waltz in here with a peace offering and start asking me what life is like where i'm from." I shake my head, not wanting to believe it myself. "They tell me you're smart Armin, you should be able to tell how this looks from my point of view."

Armin purses his lips, hurt, sorrow, astonishment and disbelief all coursing through his face in a second. "Eren please, believe me, i would never do this."

"How can i believe you Armin, when i don't even know you?"

"Eren wait!". Mikasa steps between Armin and I, her hands held out to separate us.

She turns to me. "Eren, Armin would never do this. He's our friend, he won't approve of spying on you, trust me."

"Mikasa." I try, and fail, to keep the bitterness out of my voice. "You're defending him?" I spread out my arms. "It's not that i don't want to trust him, but look at the evidence! The first thing he asks me after giving me food is what the world outside your walls is like? You're telling me that him and the listening tube have no connection whatsoever?".

"Eren, trust me when i say that he didn't know about the listening tube, he couldn't have."

Shock settles in my gut. "So you knew about it then."

Her eyes widen in horror. "No, that's not what i meant. I'm just defending a frie-".

"Yeah, the two of you are close aren't you?" I chuckle bitterly, "Close enough to be in cahoots against me aren't you?".

Before they get a chance to say anything i press on. "Was this all a lie? The kindness, the concern, all an act just to coax information from me?". I stumble away from them, my back hitting the cold damp wall. "You two are despicable."

"No Eren," a tear rolls down Mikasa's cheek,"Please, just hear us out, we're not, we didn'-".

I grit my teeth, but i can't stop my voice from cracking. "Get out." When they made no move to leave i physically push them, causing the paralysed guards to snap out of their stupor and begin grabbing for the keys.

The guards hurriedly open the cell door and try to pull the two of them out of my cell. Armin is dragged out fairly effortlessly despite his struggles, but Mikasa shakes off the guards and grabs onto my shirt, her misting eyes silently pleading with me.

Grabbing her hand, i twist it, wrenching her off me and shoving her out of the cell.

I sit back down on my bunk, watching the tear streaked face of Mikasa disappear behind the wall.

 **Hanji's POV**

Levi sprints out the door, followed closely by me and Gunther. I can hear some commotion in the room but i ignore it as we frantically head for Eren's cell.

We race up the stairs and down the corridors, ignoring the curious stares the cadets give us as we tear past them. We keep running, not stopping until we reach the door that leads to the dungeons.

Levi pushes it open and we race down the steps. As we reach the bottom i can see Mikasa and Armin. Mikasa is curled up in the corner, while Armin is squatted beside her, trying to comfort her.

As we near them Mikasa suddenly leaps from the ground and swings at Levi, releasing a guttural cry as she does.

Years of combat training and experience allows him to dodge the attack, but just barely. Mikasa lunges for him, but Armin and Gunther manage to restrain her.

"You did this didn't you?" she glares at him accusingly, her face still

"Yes, i did."

"WHY?!" She kicks out, and it takes all Armin and Gunther's strength to make sure that the kick doesn't connect. "Why would you do this?"

"Why?" Levi's tone suddenly leaps from monotone to angry. "You're asking me why i did this?"

"I just got my brother back, and you took him from me!" she spits at him. "What sort of sick,depraved person willingly-"

"Oh?" Levi leaned forward and grabbed Mikasa, his hands trembling. "Willingly Ackerman? Did you think i wanted to do this? To lie to, force information out of my former subordinate? You think i enjoyed this?". He releases her, standing up and regaining his composure. "Ackerman, believe me when i say this, we never intended for this to happen.".

Mikasa says nothing, slumping back onto the ground. Armin pulls her to her feet and leads her away, his own eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Gunther, take care of Ackerman and Arlert." He beckons for me. "Hanji."

We walk to the level of the dungeon. The guards snap to attention as we near them. I look inside the cell to see Eren, sitting in his bunk, unmoving but his baleful eyes tracking our every move.

Levi swallows. "Eren, liste-".

"If you're here to give me some bullshit excuse, or try to explain away your actions as necessary or 'for the good of humanity', save it."

"Look Eren, i know that i owe you an explanati-."

"Forget the fact that you've drugged me to get information. " he leaned forward, gripping his bunk so hard the wood begins to warp. "You sent them here. You used them to toy with my emotions, to manipulate me into revealing information. Leave. You may owe me an explanation, but i owe you nothing. Certainly nothing that could make whatever crap comes out of your mouth seem digestible enough to excuse your actions."

"Eren," Levi holds up his hands and takes a few steps towards the cell. "Just hear-"

He slams his head into the back of the wall, not hard enough to be knocked out but enough that blood begins soaking his hair. Small yellow tendrils of lightning, similar to the ones that shoot down when he shifts, begin to arc around his wound.

"One more move and i shift."

Levi's shoulders slump in defeat. He would never admit it, but i knew Eren's memory loss was hitting him and his squad hard. They had practically been Eren's mentors since the trial and his admission into the Survey Corps, and to have their once friend stare at them with such distrust and fanatical hate was unsettling, to say the least.

I step forward, my mouth opening to speak, but I'm stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

"Hanji." Levi's voice is barely above a whisper, but the emotion behind it is palpable. "Leave. We'll come again later." Reluctantly, I nod, and we head for the door.

We left the room, under the hateful glare of Humanity's Last Hope.

 **Eren's POV**

 _slam_

I took a deep breath as i heard the door close behind them, trying to calm myself.

I needed to get out of here. I had been here for less than a week and i had already been captured, exposed the existence of not only the Citadel but also the Stronghold and revealed the fact that we were scouting the walls.

But above all that, i missed my friends. I hadn't see so many of the people that mattered to me in so long. Leola. Soren. Mikasa and Arm-

 _Mikasa and Armin_. Just the names alone threw me into a whirlwind of hurt and confusion. I had spent time with them, bonded with them, i had trusted them, and i thought that they were my friends. Only to find out that they were likely faking every single one of our interactions to gain information.

I hit my head on the wall again, this time not out of anger but out of confusion.

But then why did they seem so… genuine? When i had yelled at them the hurt in their eyes looked real, they had practically been on the verge of despair when they had left. And i hadn't forgotten how Mikasa had cried when i told her i didn't remember her.

I lean forward, pressing my fingers against the bridge of my nose. They could have been faking that as well, if they really were chosen to ease information from me they would likely have chosen the best of the best, and set things up early,but still...

I shake my head to dislodge these thoughts. All this was irrelevant, i had to leave now, before i messed up anything else on this 'stealth mission'.

Slowly, trying not to draw the guard's attentions, i place my arm against the stone and begin to cut it open.


	10. Intertwining Part 5

**Levi's POV**

The guards were slumped over the floor, unconscious, all with large bruises or open wounds on their heads. Blood was splattered on the ground and walls. The door was open, the lock obviously picked. And there was also a strange chemical smell in the air. And worse of all, Eren's cell was empty, its former occupant gone.

 _Really Eren? I leave you for 10 minutes to take a bath and you escape?_

"Captain!" I look over to see Moblit and Hanji staring at something on the ground. I walk over and see that it is a thin metal rod used to pick locks. I had seen my fair share of them while living in the Underground, and still had one tucked away in my desk drawer.

Hanji bent down gingerly and picked it up. It was also covered in blood, and in fact had a few small chunks of flesh stuck to it.

"Moblit, tweezers please." she reached down and picked up a piece of her glass,she holding it up to her nose and sniffing it,before staggering back as if she was suddenly dizzy.

"It's a knockout agent."

"What?"

"I know this smell, it smells the same as the chloroform we use to knock out people before surgeries." she takes another sniff, and blinks. "But this is much more potent than anything we have. It could knock someone out in maybe a few seconds."

I huff, running my hand through my hair. Where had he gotten a pick, and a glass bottle? Come to think of it, where had he gotten the chocolate? We had searched every inch of his clothing before his interrogation, and his pockets were empty save a handkerchief.

I hear footsteps, and Auruo and Gunther walk in.

"Well?"

Gunther shrugs. "He's gone. We found two more pairs of guards knocked out. One of them had their 3DMG stolen, another their cloak. We've moved them to the sickbay, and they'll have no permanent injuries."

Auruo snorts. "Damn greenhorn got lucky, escaping just when we were having lunch."

I nod wordlessly, If Eren had escaped even 5 minutes earlier or later he would have encountered dozens of Survey Corps members going about their activities, but he had escaped during the time when the majority of them had congregated for lunch, leaving only a handful of guards to oppose his escape.

From outside came an explosion, and the sound of titan footsteps.

"What the hell?"

"Did Eren come back?"

"To the top, now!"

We run back up the stairs. I kick open the door, expecting to enter a dimly-lit corridor, but instead i emerge into open air.

The Armored titan is running into the forest, the giant crystal the Female Titan shifter is trapped in clutched tightly in his right hand. A huge chunk of HQ has collapsed, the hole leading directly into the room she was stored in.

Several soldiers are perusing it. They attempt to stop it, launching attacks on its nape, but their blades break harmlessly against its skin and they are forced to withdraw.

Erwin ran up to me, his 3DMG already on. "Levi! Forget the Armored Titan! Other squads will handle it! Gather your squads and move out to Trost!"

Auruo and Gunther open their mouths to protest, but Hanji beats them to it.

"What? Why? Not only is the Armored Titan one of our worst enemies, but it has just rescued the Female Titan! Surely-"

"Hanji," Erwin interrupts her "We still do not know the identities of our titan enemies, but we know for certain that they are intelligent, acting on a cohesive plan. If the Armored Titan would attempted such a bold rescue attempt, it can only mean that they are already on the offensive."

I step forward. "Are you saying Trost is going to be attacked?"

"Levi, I'm saying that it already has."

 **Eren's POV**

I wanted to both kill and hug the Commander in Chief of Logistics.

Before we had set out on our scouting mission into the walls, we had run into the problem of concealing supplies on ourselves if we got caught. No matter how small the supply, a thorough search would detect it right away. He was the one who had come up with the bright idea of cutting open and hiding small quantities of supplies in our bodies, in the forearm and thigh areas. This way none of our organs were affected, and if done correctly it wouldn't affect our movement.

Only downside was that it hurt like hell.

I winced as i stumbled out of the steaming corpse of my titan form. While my body could heal itself, it couldn't do anything about the pain. Not to mention i had exhausted myself running around for the past hour trying to find my way out, and i couldn't exactly ask for directions.

I collapsed next to a small river. After so much fruitless searching i had finally found a landmark i recognized from my scouting of the walls. I looked around, managing to find a reasonably sharp rock. It was nowhere near as sharp as the rock i had used in the dungeon, but it would have to do. I rolled up my pant leg and tore off a piece of my shirt and stuffed it into my mouth, to prevent me from biting on my tongue.

Biting down on the cloth, i hacked away messily at my thigh, ignoring the warm crimson fluid flowing down my leg and arm, until i saw brown cloth sticking out. With one swift motion i pulled it out, finally allowing the wound to close.

Untying it, i tipped it over. Several metallic parts and a small package fell out. I tore open the package and stuffed the crumbled biscuits inside into my mouth, washing it down with a few mouthfuls of river water.

As i ate i assembled the parts together, which was actually a gun that could be built jigsaw-puzzle style.

It was quite small, with only room for three bullets and a flare, but it was enough, especially coupled with the 3DMG and swords i had 'borrowed' from the Survey Corps. If i encountered a few Survey Corps members or other soldiers, i could distract them with the gun and escape using the gear.

If there was anything else, my titan form would take care of it.

I downed another mouthful of river water, before getting up, gripping my gun tightly in my hand. Less than a mile from this river was Trost district. My best option was to escape close to Trost district, since Leola and Soren were camped just a short distance south, but not near enough to be spotted by the troops stationed there. I thanked my lucky stars that i was part of the only military organization that still regularly used 3DMGs. Sure, the Survey Corps equivalent might be less balanced and heavier, but i could still use it to escape.

I'm jolted out of my thoughts by the sound of galloping horses. Hastily throwing the blood-covered stone into the water, and ducked behind a large boulder to hide myself, and peered over the edge.

A dozen horses rushed by me, their rider's cloaks emblazoned with a double rose symbol. It wasn't the symbol of the Survey Corps, but another branch,the Garrison, Mikasa had called it.

I frowned. I had seen several garrison units since i escaped, and they were all heading in the same direction, to the South. Where were they all going? The Garrison only handled crowd control, security and… protecting the districts from titans.

My head snapped over to the distance, roughly where i knew Trost district was _. Don't tell me its been…_

I pushed myself up, and began to run.

 **Mikasa's POV**

I curse as the 17 meter class aberrant swings at me, forcing me to move out of the way of its hand, wasting precious fuel. My 3DMG gear was already half empty and there was no end to the titan onslaught.

"Connie, Jean!" I yell over to my comrades, facing down the titan with me. "Flank it! Distract it so that i-"

"Ahhhhhh!"

Nearby, a 4 meter class has seized a small girl in its hands, bringing her up to its mouth.

"Change of plan! Keep it busy!" Jean and Connie nod, and i turn my attention to the girl.

I'm too late. I watch in horror as the titan begins to bite down on the little girl, already halfway inside its mouth. But its teeth never gets a chance to touch her as it's blinded by a gunshot, causing the titan to roar and bring her out of its mouth involuntarily.

Eren swings in, a gun in one hand and sword in the other. He slices the titan's hands off, catching the child and placing her safely on the ground, before decapitating the titan in one swift stroke,destroying its nape in the process.

He lands on the ground, and turns to her. "There's a large number of troops in that bell tower. Run over there, they'll protect you." she nods and begins running for the tower.

"Eren!"

He spins around, his finger on the trigger. When he sees me his face tenses, but his gun hand dips slightly.

We stare at each other for a few tense moments before he speaks.

"I'm leaving the Walls."

"E-Eren." i stutter, lost for words for once. The body of the 17 meter aberrant collapses beside me, but i ignore it.

"Look Mikasa, what happens within the Walls is no longer my concern. I'm not going to just throw away my life for-".

"Then why did you save that girl?"

"Just because i'm from another country doesn't mean i'll just stand by and let people die." He grimaces. "Just because i'm a titan that does not mean i'm a monster."

"Eren, you know i don't think you ar-"

"You know that i don't know you." Hurt stabs through my heart.

I sheath my swords and tentatively stretch my arms out towards him, as if by this simple gesture i could keep him from leaving. "Eren,i know that w-we've had some disagreements, but please, don't g-".

"Don't make me hate you Mikasa." I blink, surprised.

He sighs, "Look Mikasa, i don't know how much of the past few days was real. Maybe you were faking all of it for information, maybe we really spent most of our entire lives together. I don't know what to believe, but trust me when i say i want to believe that it's real. "

He takes a deep, shuddering breath. "But i have another life outside the Walls. No matter what, that's my life now, and i'm going back to it."

His gun hand slowly rises up to point at me, and the grip on his sword tightens. "Please don't try to stop me. I don't want to have to fight you."

From the alleyway behind him steps out two titans, one a 5 meter class and another a 9 meter class. In his emotional state, he doesn't notice as they reach down for him.

"Eren!" I lunge forward, drawing my blades. He yells in alarm and fires.

Pain sears through my right arm, causing me to drop my sword. I bite back my cry of pain and kick Eren out of the way, slicing apart the hand of the 5 meter class. It didn't matter that i was wounded, or that i only had one weapon left,or that my 3DMG was almost out of fuel. None of it mattered except for the fact that i failed to protect him once.

I would not fail him again.

 **Leola's POV**

"Soren!" I hastily shook the white-haired male, who was currently hunched over the portable radio listening to a coded message.

"What is it?"

"Look!"

Dozens of titans were rapidly converging upon our location. More precisely, they were converging upon the ape-like titan that we had fought to rescue Eren, who was standing on a cliff with his arm raised and flanked by a quadrupedal titan.

The titans gathered in one unruly mob in front of the ape. He stared at them for a moment, before turning around and sprinting into the distance, causing them to charge over the hill with him.

"That's… in the direction of the Wall isn't it?".

"They've started their attack." Soren pulled out a revolver from his pack and threw it to me, before pulling out his own rifle. "Prepare yourself. This is our chance. We'll infiltrate their defenses in the chaos, and extract Eren from there."

I stuffed the gun into the holster on my belt and pulled on my combat boots, before slipping on the standard issue combat rings, which had blades built into them. I looked over at Soren, who was already ready. I nodded, and he leapt off the tree, transforming as he did. I leapt onto his shoulder, and he took off running, chasing down the mob of titans that had just left.

 _We're coming for you Eren._


	11. Intertwinement

**Author's notes:** Happy 4 month anniversary everybody! As of today my fanfic is exactly 4 months old! Woohoo! What's that? _Someone whispers into my ear_ What do you mean i uploaded this one day early?

 **Mailbox:** (I've been wanting to do this for a while, and no better time than the present right?)

 **Wargrass01 Chapter 10: Once again this just keeps getting better and better, though I am confused as to why Connie or Sean didn't notice Eren or the couple titans going after him and Mikasa. Either great chapter once again and I can't wait for more.**

Aww thanks! :) Well, the in-universe explanation is that they were distracted by other titans and were fighting them during this scene, so they couldn't help.

 **pastaaddict Chapter 10: It's all about to kick off now!**

Why yes it is! _rubs hand in anticipation_

 **SortOfAUser Chapter 1: Awwww yes i cant wait for the meeting. I love the buildup and the continuity(totally forgot about Eren having a hankerchief)!**

Thanks! Neither could i, you have no idea how long i waited to write that. :P

 **Eren's POV**

I watch in shock as Mikasa shoots up and slices away a titan hand just a few feet away from grabbing me, before killing it and turning to face another Titan.

She gestures with her wounded hand, spraying several droplets of blood at me. "Run!"

Guilt shoots through me. Mikasa was trying to protect me? I look down in horror at the gun in my hand. _She's risking her life for me and I just shot her._

I lean against the wall, ignoring the battle raging around me. A bald Survey Corp member stops and shouts something at me before grappling away from a titan. So, what she said was true? If she was faking, there was no point in protecting me, she could have just ran. And if she had been ordered to protect me, she wouldn't have asked me to run out of sight…

I close my eyes and slump, not caring how vulnerable that was leaving me. Could it be that she really didn't know anything about the tube, and I just jumped to conclusions? Did… did I wrongly accuse her?

But I'm shaken out of my thoughts by rhythmic pounding, like a titan running. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a flash of golden armor.

"Reiner."

 **Levi's POV**

I slash through the titan's nape, showing myself in its hot blood and killing it at the same time. It collapses clumsily onto the ground, crushing a smaller titan and the carcass of one we killed earlier as it did.

"There's so many of them!" I land to see a shaking Survey Corp member staring blankly into the distance, where a few dozen titans are still lumbering towards our position.

"Focus soldier, this is no time to be panicking."

"But we can't kill all of them!"

"We don't need to." The white haired form of Rico drops in, Garrison reinforcements at her back. "We just need to protect the gate until we finish evacuation procedures."

"What's the status on evacuation?"

"Almost complete, but we're still getting in stragglers from the east and west."

"Captain Levi!" My head snaps over to Petra, who frantically points at something. "The Armored Titan!"

Sure enough, the 15 meter aberrant is making its way towards the gate. A few meters behind it is the Female Titan, fending off mindless titan and Garrison soldiers alike, protecting the Armored Titan from attack.

It crouches down into a sprinting position, and charges for the gate.

"Rico!"

The Garrison Captain throws her hand down. "Fire!"

The cannons open fire, sending cannonballs at the Armored Titan, but they just bounce harmlessly off its skin.

A boulder suddenly flies in, taking out half the cannons and the troops manning them. Over at the gate, the same ape-like Titan that kidnapped Eren so long ago is standing there, the mindless titans completely ignoring and walking around him. He picks up another piece of rubble and hurls it away, killing a team of Garrison troops fighting a titan.

"Rico! Hold your fire! Special Operations Squad!" Eld, Gunther, Petra and Auruo snap to attention. "We're taking down the Armored Titan!"

But, something catches the Titan's attention and he suddenly grinds to a halt. He turns, ignoring the cannons, and squints into a few corridors. His eyes suddenly widened and he steps back, as if startled by something.

A bolt of lightning shoots down, and Eren's Titan form rose from the buildings.

 **Reiner's POV**

Really Eren? I admire your bravery, but even you must realise this fight cannot be won.

He had put himself in the worst possible location. He was between me and Annie, and within range of Zeke's throwing range. It had only taken me and Zeke to defeat him previously, and Annie had fought him to a stalemate in the past. How could he expect to win?

As if answering my question, his right tendril shoots out of his lower back and flicks up, a hurled rock smashing into it. It flops uselessly to the ground, broken, but it has achieved its intended purpose, protecting Eren's main body from attack.

Annie's titan's eyes widen in shock, and i grimace. Oh yes, forgot about those.

He tilts his head back and roars, and charges for me. I readied myself in a defensive posture, and Annie chased after him, determined to sandwich him between us.

As he neared me, he lept into the air and brought his fists down onto my head. I blocked it, the force of the strike cracking the ground under my feet. He threw a left hook at me, and i parried it, throwing one back of my own. He caught my arm, and smashed his left fist into it. The force bent it backwards at an odd angle, and i knew it was broken, although the force of the strike caused his arm to break as well.

I push him away and back up. As Annie got nearer, Eren's right tendril, now fully healed,slashes wildly at her. She dodges most of the strikes, but one manages to inflict a deep wound on her chest. Eren's eyes flicker wildly back and forth between us, before he lunges towards me.

I hold up my right arm in a defensive posture, but i did not expect him to stab his armored fingers right into my unprotected eyes.

I roar in pain, falling back while flailing my arms wildly in an attempt to defend myself. But no further attacks come, and i heard roars from both Eren's and Annie's titan forms, as well as the telltale sound of rocks being launched and smashed.

Desperate to rejoin the fight, i concentrate healing into one eye. As my eye heals, I can see that the two of them are still squaring off. Both of them are heavily wounded, the left half of Annie's face is gone and both her thighbones are exposed to the air, while Eren's left ribcage is caved in and his lower jaw is hanging by a thread, although his arm has already healed.

He leaps forward and grabs her right forearm, which is crushed before she can harden it. She throws another punch at him, which he catches. The two of them stand still for a moment, and Eren raises both his tendrils.

The tendrils lash out, slicing across Annie's titan form. Huge chunks of meat and blood are ripped from her abdomen and shoulders, and with a roar Eren rips both her weakened arms off, before kicking the titan into a nearby house, where she lies unmoving.

I roar and lunge forward, tackling him to the ground, but he wraps his legs around my waist and throws me aside.

We quickly scramble to our feet, facing off. I can feel some soldiers attempting to attack me but I ignore them, focusing on the larger threat.

My eyes flicker over to Warchief Zeke, who is readying himself with another boulder. I tighten my fists, preparing myself. When he threw the boulder at Eren, I would use the momentary disorientation from the blow to quickly disable Eren's arms. I could then-

Yellow light flashes behind me, and another titan leaps onto my back.

 **Levi's POV**

I growl as my blades glanced harmlessly again off the Armored Titan's nape, not even leaving a scratch.

"Hey you!" I look over at Gunther, who is frantically waving at someone on the ground. "Get out of here it's not safe!"

I look down and spot a teenage girl running directly towards the Armored Titan. The first thing I notice about her is the color of her hair, which was as red as fire, but the second more important thing I notice is that she is clothed in greenish-brown clothing and a leather belt that _looks exactly like Eren's._

As she gets nearer she grapples up using a 3DMG around her waist. It is more sleek than ours, made up of a more bronze-coloured metal and has four smaller cylinders rather than two large ones.

"Excuse me miss!" Petra swings towards her. "Do you know anything but Eren's disappeara-"

"Get out of the way!" She swings up to several meters above the Armored Titan's nape, and shifts.

Her titan is smaller than Eren's or the Armored aberrant, maybe a 9 meter class. It has long flowing hair, same as the human currently inside it, and its mouth is bared in a frightening snarl. But what draws my attention is its enormous forearms, which are almost as thick as its body and covered in thick greyish bone.

It crashes onto the Armored Titan's back, causing it to stumble backwards. She brings her fists down on its head, smashing away chunks of its armor and causing his skull to cave in.

Eren roars and charges to help. His teeth and jaws crystallize, and he bites down on his enemy's right arm. In a spray of golden shards the arm shatters, and Eren rips it away. The Armored Titan attempts a frantic counterattack with his left fist, but before it can hit Eren the other Titan grabs it and pulls it back.

The Armored Titan tilts its head back and roars.

I hear a terrible cracking sound. Over at the wall, the Colossal Titan begins to push himself over it, climbing into Trost itself. The Bestial Titan charges towards the Armored while roaring himself, causing several nearby titans of various sizes to follow him.

"Change of plan!" I yell at my squad. "Attack the Bestial Titan! Take it down so that Eren can focus on the Armored Titan!"

Gunther points at the Colossal Titan. "What about him?"

As if answering his question, another bolt of lightning shoots down, revealing yet another titan standing atop the Wall.

Unlike Eren's heavily muscled Titan form, this one was stick thin by comparison, its limbs resembling some of the beggars I had seen in the Underground. But its stomach was bloated and tinted green, and if I looked closer I could swear that its lower jaw was split down the center.

It tilts its head back, and spewed large volumes of green liquid at the Colossal Titan's hand. The hand bubbles and dissolves, causing it to lose its grip and falling. The Titan vomits more liquid at the Colossal's head, which it just barely manages to avoid.

"Leave it to that!" Petra opens her mouth to protest, but I cut her off. "I know we don't know whether that thing is friendly, but it's fighting the Colossal for us. Let them kill each other, focus on the Bestial!"

They nod on determination. "Yes Captain!" As we near the Bestial Titan he brings his fist over his head and smashes it down, causing several nearby titans to converge on our position, evidently trying to cut us off.

"Keep them off me!" My squad nods and disperses, intercepting the normal titans as I head for the Beastial.

 _You're mine you bastard. Today you're going to pay for what you did._

As I get near him he picks up a piece of the broken off gate and throws it at me. It misses me, but shrapnel stings my exposed skin as it demolishes a nearby house.

I grit my teeth, blinking a few drops of blood out of my eyes, and fling myself towards him. He raises his hand to grab me, but I slice it apart, before slashing down at his shoulder twice, destroying the muscles and leaving him unable to intercept me as I cut out his eyes, gouging the head-sized orbs out and robbing him of his sight.

Now my chance. Flipping my left sword so that it's held backhanded, I shoot down and slice up the length of his arm, before hacking away again at his shoulder. His arm hangs on for a second, before severing and falling to the ground.

Before he can recover I lunge and slash away his nape, preparing to pull out whatever shifter is controlling it, only to be met by steaming flesh and bone, with no human in sight.

"What the-" I don't get to finish my sentence before the Bestial brings his hand down on his nape. I leap off in the nick of time and grapple to the ground, scowling up at the titan shifter.

"Oh poor Captain Levi," he shakes his head, his voice infuriatingly smug. "Looks like he finally found something he can't cut down.". His sliced up arm has already healed up to the elbow, and both his eyes are functional.

He reaches up and taps at his now intact nape. "You expected to find me here, yes? Unfortunately for you, I can-" he is cut off by a blood curdling roar.

Eren's Titan form is charging directly towards us, his eyes blazing and tendrils held at the ready. Galloping parallel to him is some sort of quadrupedal Titan, with several barrels and crates piled on its back and the smoking and barely conscious forms of Reiner and Annie held in its mouth. Following close behind it is the red-haired Titan, similarly galloping on all fours.

But to my surprise, the Bestial Titan doesn't look panicked, instead to my surprise his mouth widens in a smug smile, his right forearm and left fist hardening. As Eren nears his tendrils slash down, but the Bestial blocks it with his right arm, and punches right through Eren's nape with his left.

The unconscious Titan shifter is ripped right out of his Titan form, flying several meters onto the ground below.

"No!" The red-haired Titan and I cry out in horror simultaneously as Eren flops messily to the ground, seemingly unconscious and his leg twisted at an angle legs shouldn't twist. I shoot one last hateful glare at the Bestial Titan, who mockingly gives me a sloppy Survey Corps salute before retreating back through the gate.

I charge towards Eren's position, but the red-haired Titan has reached there first. Or to be more precise the smoking carcass of the Titan, the shifter inside already running towards Eren.

"Eren!" The red-haired girl kneels the barely conscious boy and pulls him up, her eyes tearing up with relief. She pulls him into a brief hug, then slings his arm over her shoulder. "Come on, we're getting you out of here."

"No." she turns towards me. I step forward, my swords drawn. "Nobody is taking him away."

She snarls and pulls out a gun. Unlike the guns we used, this one had some sort of metal cylinder sticking out the center.

"I don't know who you are, but out of my way. I came here for him, and I'm leaving with him."

"No, you are not."

"I'm saving him from this hellhole, and I'm not going to let anyone stop me, least of all some bowl-haired midget!"

"L-leola?" Eren looks up drowsily, his speech slurred. "What are yo-"

"We're here to rescue you." He blinks at his surroundings before his eyes meet mine, and he hastily fumbles at his belt for a tiny gun that slips out of his grasp and clatters onto the street. He snarls, but in his state it looks more like a frown, before drawing a sword.

"Eren!" Recruit Ackerman is frantically heading towards our position. The right side of her jacket and shirt is soaked through with blood, and judging from how sluggish her 3DMG is at responding she is running on fumes.

I shift my swords slightly downward in preparation to strike, and Leola cocks the hammer on her gun. "Ackerman, stay back! I'll handle this, with your wounds you're in no condition to help!"

But she ignores me. As she nears a 15 meter abruptly crashes out of a building. She tries to avoid it but her 3DMG gives out and she crashes to the ground, right at the feet of the titan.

Eren's eye dilate in fear. "Mikasa!" He turns to the red-haired girl. "Help her!"

I blink in surprise, and she looks at him incredulously. "Are you kidding me?"

"Just do it!" He grabs her hand, his eyes pleading. "Please!"

She grits her teeth, her eyes flickering between me and the breach, where normal Titans are still streaming in. Just when I think she is going to knock Eren out and run, she huffs and pulls out a flare, firing it into the air. Unlike our flares it didn't emit coloured smoke, instead it explodes into a large fiery burst. Over at the wall, the emaciated Titan looks over, and leaps off, hardening its fists to slide down it.

He lands and vomits a large stream of liquid at the gaping hole at the gate. But this time, rather than dissolving it hardens and crystallizes, sealing the hole and trapping a few titans in the translucent crystals.

He turns and dashes towards Mikasa. He lunges forward and punches the titan into a nearby building. The titan pulls itself out of the wreckage and grabs the emaciated Titan. The two struggle, but the mindless titan is bulkier and has the upper hand. It bites down on the emaciated Titan's neck and begins to tear, but as it pulls out a chunk of flesh a small river of liquid pours over it, dissolving its head.

Both titans crash to the ground in a motionless mess of limbs and liquidized flesh. The emaciated titan's nape bursts open, revealing a middle aged man with snow white hair, who stumbles out onto the streets, a rifle gripped tightly in his hand.

Eren brightened. "Soren!"

"Eren. It's good to see you're relatively unharmed." He turns and looks up and down at me appraisingly. "Likewise for you, Captain Levi Ackerman."

"How do you-"

"Levi!" Erwin and Rico run up, followed by several dozen Garrison and Survey Corps soldiers.

"Just great." Eren and Leola's eyes drift over to Soren, as if waiting for orders. But he doesn't say anything, instead staring at the troops with a strange mixture of calculation and satisfaction.

"Soren!" Eren harshly whispers at him. "What do we do? Run, maybe shift?" causing several Garrison troops cry out in fear and shuffle backwards.

"Leola. Eren." The white haired man drops his rifle to the ground, before pulling a knife with a serrated blade out of his shoe and tossing it aside. "Lay down your arms."

Leola starts. "Wait what?"

"We're surrendering.".

"Have the both of you gone mad?" He doesn't answer her, instead reaching down to his 3DMG and opening a compartment. He reaches in and pulls on a string. A series of small explosions rips it apart, and the deformed smoking remnants clatter noisily at his feet.

"W-why?"

"This is a order."

Leola reluctantly drops her gun, before doing the same to her own 3DMG. Eren, whatever injuries he may have had by now healed, retracts his arm from her shoulder and the three of them raise their arms in surrender.

"Well?". The white haired man, Soren, Eren had called him, holds out his arms imploringly. "Aren't you going to cuff me?" The Garrison soldiers don't seem to be in any hurry to do so, but Rico waves at them and they reluctantly shuffle forward, clamping iron restraints on the three shifters.

I glare at Soren as he looks at his restraints with faint interest,before giving the soldier who put them on a polite nod.

 _What the hell are you planning?_

"Rrrroooaaarrrr!"

Everybody present looks up in horror as the Colossal Titan once again begins to climb over the Wall. Judging by the damage and the parts that were steaming, the Emaciated Titan had managed to melt away much of its face, as well as disable its shoulders and right elbow. But it is healed enough, and begins pushing itself over the Walls again, threatening to enter Trost.

Rico yells at her subordinates. "Focus every available cannon on that Colossal Titan! Erwin, get your men an-".

"That will be unnecessary." Soren points up at something. "It is already dead."

A leathery-skinned titan sprouting enormous wings on its back soars above us. As I watch, it swoops in and out of its mouth shoots a large red ball of fire, which buries into the Colossal Titan's head.

A second passes, and an enormous explosion tears its head right off its shoulders, taking much of its neck, nape and collarbones with it. The winged titan grabs two of the burning chunks and flies away with it, letting out a massive screech as it leaves.


	12. The World Beyond

**Mailbox**

 **Adusk, Chapter 11: Nice chapter dude, I wonder if they are going to find out Berthold (Fucking terrible at spelling that name) And Reiner are titans.**

Thanks! Well, Levi did see the quadrepegial Titan carry away Reiner alongside Annie in the last chapter, but we'll see if he's a tattletale. ;)

 **wargrass01, Chapter 11: don't know what just happened, but I'm loving every second of it.**

Thanks! Rest assured, every single unclear thing will be answered! Sooner or later! _Hastily kicks pile of scratched out notes away_

 **pastaaddict, Chapter 11: That was intense! Can't wait to see what develops from this! 8D**

To answer your question, a lot. _Smiles schemingly_

 **, Chapter 11: wow... the best part was coming... but it's so sad.. it didn't has any continue... huweee...**

Well, it does now. :)

 **Eren's POV**

"Hello Eren." I opened my eyes to see Mikasa standing hesitantly at the open door of my cell.

"Ah, Mikasa." I rub my eyes and stretch, pretending to be sleepy but really just trying to dilute the surprisingly awkward atmosphere.

She gestures to the bunk. "Can I sit down?"

I give her the best smile I can muster under the circumstances. "Sure."

She sits, her back stiffly straight and her hands resting awkwardly on the lap. I wait for her to say something, but she just stares at the floor, deep in thought.

"So, erm, here I am again, back where I started." I joke, hoping to get a reaction from her. I don't get any.

"So," I begin fiddling with the buttons on my shirt. "Any particular reason why you're visiting?"

"Why did you save me?" Her face is apprehensive, tense, like she is scared to know the answer. "You could have easily escaped during the battle, but you risked your life and gave up your chance to leave. Why?"

I exhale. "Levi told you huh? Well, It's because, well-"

"Yes?"

"I trust you now." Her eyebrows furrow. "When you saved me that day, it occurred to me that you had absolutely no reason to do all that for me. Someone sent to spy on me wouldn't put your life completely on the line to protect me. You didn't try to disable me in some way, keep me from running, heck you'd didn't even see where I was running so that you could track me down later. You were completely focused on defeating the titans. Well, now I that you didn't lie to me, that you would never do all that to hurt me." I grip her hand and smile at her, a genuine one this time.

To my surprise, she starts crying, her body shaking as tears drip down her chin.

"Mikasa?" I let go of her hand. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no." She looks at me, and I realise that while her eyes are pouring with tears, her mouth is stretched in a relieved smile. "Do you know how scared I was when I was approved to see you? I thought that I had lost the person I care most about, I thought that maybe you saved me just out of pity, or for some other reason." She grips my shirt, half sobbing and half laughing. "It's just, you don't know how long I've waited for you to say those words."

I wrap my arms around her. "I'd wager at least three months." This time i get a reaction, as she emits a somewhat strangled laugh.

"Mikasa." I whisper, tightening my grip. "Don't worry, you're never going to lose me."

We stay in that position for a minute or so, when suddenly the cell door opens again, causing us to abruptly awkwardly pull away from each other.

"Oh, hey Leola."

 **Mikasa's POV**

The girl enters the room, her eyes briefly flickering over Eren's body before shooting me a look of distrust and anger, as if warning me not to hurt him in any way, causing anger to coil up in my gut.

 _As if I would ever do that! Who is this bitch warning me away from hurting Eren of all people!_

She walks over to him, looking at him with a mix of emotion in her eyes.

Then she cuffs the back of his head.

"Oi! Leola that hur-"

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" She punctuates each word with a slap or a punch. "What the fuck were you thinking? Now we've been captured, and-".

"Hey!" I stand up, my fists clenched. "What the hell are you doing?"

"No Mikasa!" He holds his hand and put and gives me a reassuring smile, even though he is still being pummelled by the girl. "It's alright, that's just how she shows that she ca-mmph!".

But his voice is muffled when the girl pulls him into a hug.

A twinge of jealously shoots through me as I watch Eren return the hug wholeheartedly, curling his arms around her neck and waist. She buries her face into his shoulder, her eyes half-lidded and moist.

"It's nice to see you again." She half heartedly uses her left hand to slap his back. "Even if you are an idiot." earning a chuckle from him.

"Hey." I force out, my voice strained. "Are you two done yet?"

"Oh!" Eren pulls away quickly, his face tinged slightly red. The girl looks a little hurt, and I let the end of my lips flicker into a smug smile, which immediately vanishes when Eren pulls her in and whispers into her ear, comforting her.

"So Eren, care to introduce us?"

"Right!" Eren yells, a little too loudly, and grabs both of us and pulls us closer together. "Right! Mikasa, this is Leola, she's the one who rescued me when I was kidnapped, and the one who's been taking care of me these past few months." She extends her hand out to me, her face slightly gloating, as if saying "You failed to protect him on that day, while I didn't."

"And Leola, this is Mikasa, she's my adopted sister from inside the Walls. We spent most of our childhood together." Leola's look fades and her arm falls fractionally, and I give her a gloating look of my own.

 _That's right, I spent my entire life with him, while you only got three months._

"Well?" Eren gestures between us, seemingly not noticing the tense atmosphere. "Shake!"

I clench my jaw, but reluctantly extend my hand, and we shake. Her hand is rough and callused and surprisingly sweaty. For a moment we squeeze on each other's hand, trying to overpower the other, before she realises that she's outmatched and quickly pulls her hand back.

"Now that we-" Eren freezes, and looks up at the ceiling. "Did you guys hear that?"

I tilt my ear up, and i hear a sound. Its faint, but i recognize it immediately. The sound which even until today made almost every member of the Survey Corps' blood run cold.

The sound of titans shifting.

 **Hanji's POV**

"Erghhh!" I throw my clipboard to the floor in frustration.

"Squad leader?" Moblit rushes forward. "Are you alright?"

"No, of course I'm not!" Moblit recoils, causing me to feel a little guilty, but I'm so frustrated I push it aside.

I pick up the blackened piece of metal I have been examining and toss it on the table in frustration. "Look at this Moblit," I soften my tone, trying to avoid startling him again. "Do you know what this is?"

He scratches his head, looking thoughtful. "Some type of metal? It doesn't resemble any that I know of however."

"Exactly! This metal doesn't match any I know of! Its lighter than even the metal used to make 3DMGs, yet extraordinarily strong, and also doesn't visually resemble any natural metal." I snatch up a hammer and hit it out of frustration, but it doesn't even leave a scratch.

"Ahhh! If they hadn't dragged that white haired guy off to the Capital dungeons to be interrogated I would-".

Moblit frowns. "What do you mean? He's being interrogated in the HQ dungeons."

"Hah?"

"The Capital didn't feel safe keeping two new shifters as well as Eren in their dungeons, fearing a repeat of the Female Titan's and Eren's fight. Therefore the interrogation is being held in our dungeon, with Nile Dok, Dot Pixis and another undecided official coming here."

"Then what are waiting for?" I snatch up the metal, stuffing it into a bag and slinging it over my shoulder. "We're going to go down there and make him tell us what this metal is!"

"What? Squad leader, I don't think that's a good idea!"

"Nonsense Moblit, its a fantastic idea! How else are we going to find out what this metal is?"

"But Commander Erwin, Captain Levi and other officials are already interrogating him!"

"Even better! He'll be so intimidated that he'll spill all his knowledge right away."

"But even so, we shouldn't interrupt the comman-" he trails off when several flashes of light come from outside the window. I look out just in time to see one more lightning strike in the forest, setting a few trees on fire.

"Wow, that's a lot of lightning. Must be a storm coming."

Moblit's eyes widened in horror. "Squad leader," he said hesitantly, his voice strained with fear. "That's not a storm."

Out of the edge of the forest steps a gigantic foot, crushing a cannon underneath it.

 **Levi's POV**

I had never met someone I wanted to kill more.

There had been plenty of candidates. Erwin, when I first met him. Several members of the Military Police. The Bestial Titan, if he was even human.

But none had made me as irritated as this white haired bastard sitting in front of me, staring calmly at me.

His posture was relaxed, and his behaviour relatively compliant, the complete opposite of Eren's fiery struggles when we tried to interrogate him.

I grit my teeth. _But his eyes._

His eyes resembled the smug looks of merchants who looked down at those from the Underground. They screamed arrogance, screamed that their owner knew infinitely more than those he was looking at, screamed that they were above others. Even now, as our captive, he was looking at me with an almost condescending look of pity, like an executioner looking at an innocent man about to be hanged.

Not to mention thuse same eyes kept wandering upwards.

"Why do you keep looking at the ceiling?"

His head tilts. "Excuse me captain? I'm not sure-".

"Your eyes have been flickering up to the roof for the past 15 minutes, what the hell are you looking at?"

"Apologies captain. I am just worried about my subordinates."

"Your subordinates?"

"Yes, Leola Asturias and Eren Yaeger. I have not seen them in-"

"What the hell do you mean your subordinate?"

He looks at me in mild surprise. "They are official enlisted soldiers, who have been put under my command. So they are-"

"Look you beanpole, get this straight." I stand up and jab at his face, my finger just inches from his forehead. "Eren is not your subordinate, got that?" He is part of the Survey Corps, and you will not steal him fro-"

"With all due respect captain, Eren is my subordinate." he crosses his arms, the look in his eyes transitioning to one of barely controlled irritation. "We rescued him from the clutches of the Beast Titan, and he willingly enlisted into our ranks. He is not part of your armed forces anymore, he is part of ours."

I grip the edge of my table. If the other interrogators didn't come soon, I was going to-

The door opens, and in steps Erwin, followed closely by Nile, who is nervously plucking at his paperwork. I frown. Wasn't there supposed to be two others with them?

"Nile, where is Pixis and the other official?"

Nile pulls out the chair beside me. "The appearance of external shifters as well as the devastation caused during the fight has caused widespread panic and confusion. Pixis has his hands full trying to maintain order in his section. The only reason I'm free to come here is because the nobles have stopped all movement in and out of Wall Sina, preventing knowledge of it from reach the interior."

"Now," he pulls out paper and a pen, and looks expectantly at our 'guest'. "Who are you?"

He crosses his fingers on the table, and I notice the look in his eyes is gone, wiped off and replaced by one of calmness. "My name is Soren Dubois. I am what you would call a Captain in the Reconnaissance Division, my country's equivalent of the Survey Corps."

"Why are you here?"

"Officially, I am here to gather information on your Walls. But I am actually on a secret democratic mission to the Walls, by direct order of our Emperor, which is basically our King."

"Then why did you allow yourself to be captured?"

"With all due respect Commander, with the exception of being captured and interrogated there is no other way that I could speak to so many military officials at the same time."

Nile Dok clears his throat. "If we are to negotiate we will first need to know certain things."

"What do you want to know?"

Erwin leans forward, looking more excited than I have ever seen him. "Everything. But first and foremost, what other humans and societies are there outside the Walls."

He nods, and looks around the dungeon, before getting up and walking over to a rock sticking out the side. He stares at it for a moment, before leaning down and dragging his wrist over it, cutting his forearm open.

Nike Dok scrambles backwards, almost falling out of his chair. Erwin stands up in alarm, demanding an explanation, but I don't wait for one.

I pull out my swords just as he turns around, about to say something, presumably some sort of taunt. I don't wait for it, instead sending one of my blades through his mouth and the other through his heart, pinning him to the wall.

But his expression doesn't change. Rather than shifting, he calmly pulls a rolled up parchment out of the wound, which immediately begins to steam shut. He stands there for a few moments, waiting, before tapping on the blade in his mouth.

Erwin rests his hand on my shoulder. "Levi." I pull on my swords, and with some resistance they exit his body. He tries to say something, instead making gurgling noises and sending foamy blood dripping down his chin, so he just nods at me and holds up the map.

He gives it a few shakes, trying to clear the blood on it, before unfurling it on the table. It shows a map depicting some kind of landmass surrounded by water on three sides, and four coloured splotches.

"This is a map of a continent named Europe, one of seven in the world, where your Walls are located. It is also where three other countries are, the Citadel, where my subordinates and myself are from, the Stronghold-." He points at the three on the mainland. "-and the Hometown." Pointing at one on an island as he did.

"The reason that I am here is that for the past 10 years the Citadel and Stronghold have been locked in a bitter stalemate in a war we call the Second Eastern War, with the Hometown providing material support to us. Despite ferocious fighting and hundreds of thousands of losses on each side the front line is so narrow and our armies so evenly matched that there have been no significant advance by either side for more or less the entire war."

He points at the gates of the Third Wall. "Five years ago, in order to break the deadlock the Stronghold sent an elite team of commandos, who had been taught for years how to blend in and information about the Walls, to breach Wall Maria. Amongst them were the Titans you call the Female and Bestial Titans. We had recently received news that the last descendant of the King had been killed by a rogue shifter, and they took it as a prime opportunity to strike."

"At that point in time we were bogged down in heavy fighting and had no available reserves to counter them. In an attempt to curry favor with us the Hometown offered to send a team of their own to intercept the commandos, amongst them the one you call the Colossal and Armored Titans. We agreed, but," his expression shifted into one of mild anger "they betrayed us, switching sides and aiding the team of commandos in breaching the Wall. The sudden opening allowed the enemy to launch a surprise offensive which decimated our already outnumbered armies, letting them have the first major advance of the entire war."

"Over the past few years the war has slowly regressed back into a stalemate. Therefore, the commando team was ordered to breach your second Wall, which was cancelled halfway due to the sudden appearance of a Titan shifter within your Walls. The knowledge that you now possessed Titan forces, coupled with recent Wallian technological advances such as the creation of armor-piercing rounds you dub Thunder Spears, has caused our Emperor to desire an alliance with your nation. We are prepared to negotiate an agreement that will be acceptable and beneficial to both our countries, including exchange of tech-"

I leap to my feet, slamming my hands onto the wooden table, which creaks. "Where the fuck were all of you?".

Nile and Erwin exchange looks. "Levi, calm down."

"You think you can just walk into our Walls and start dictating terms? We've spent the last 100 years trapped within these Walls, surrounded by titans, thinking that we're alone. We've lost so many people to the titans, most of them from the Survey Corps. And now you're telling me that there's Sina knows how many other nations out there, and not one of you came to help us?"

He holds up his arms in a diplomatic gesture. "I assure you that my nation has had its reasons for-"

Hanji bursts in, looking more agitated than i had ever seen her.

"T-t-ti-titans o-o-out a-a-ar, ti-t-t-ti-"

"Oi, shitty glasses, we're in the middle of something here."

Moblit runs in, looking even more agitated than Hanji, and slaps her on the back, causing her to cough and choke out what she was stuttering on.

"Titans are surrounding the HQ!" Before promptly passing out and collapsing.


	13. The Truth Behind Negotiations

**Author's Notes:** Surprise guys! I'm updating early! Thanks for waiting!

 **Eren's POV**

The door burst open, and a Survey Corps soldier I didn't know rushed in, looking panicked, two of the guards at his heel.

"You!" He jabbed a finger towards Mikasa. "Grab your weapons and head to the surface." He points at Leola. "Visits over! Bring her back to her cell." The guards grab Leola and forcefully haul her out the door and toss her into the neighboring room.

Mikasa turned to look at me, hesitant. I smiled and reached up to squeeze her hand. "Don't worry, we'll see you soon won't we." She smiled slightly and squeezed back.

"Don't bet on it boy." The man grabbed a 3DMG from the corner, probably Mikasa's, and tossed it to her. "We need to go, now!

She quickly slips on the gear. "What's going on?"

He looks over at me angrily. "His friends have come for him." He hurled open the door and rushed up the stairs, a confused Mikasa at his heels.

Just before the door slammed shut I caught the unmistakable sound of Titan shifting.

Titan shifting? But that means-

"Leola?"

"Hm?"

I heard shuffling as she adjusted herself on whatever she was sitting on.

"Do you think that's the commando team from the Hometown and Stronghold?"

"No." The slight delay before she said made me realise she shook her head before it occurred to her that I couldn't see her. "Listen closely."

We sit in silence for a few seconds, and I hear the faint roar of tank engines and the squeal of tank tracks.

"The Hometown is a tiny island of religious fanatics, who are still stuck decades behind us in technology. They don't have tanks, heck, I doubt they even know which country they're allied with. And the Stronghold would never supply them with tanks."

"So…"

"So it's either the Stronghold themselves are invading the Walls, " Her voice rose slightly in excitement. "or this is a rescue party sent by High Command."

I sat in silence, slight horror trickling into my thoughts. Rescue party? Knowing the Wall's technology, there was no way they could resist that many titans, but knowing the Survey Corps, they would try anyway. And die doing so.

 _Guys please, no matter what you do, don't fight them. You can't win._

"Eren, you okay? You're suddenly really quiet."

Not knowing what to say, I settle for simply responding "Hm." We settle back into a comfortable silence. I lean back against the stone wall of the cell, grateful and slightly relieved that she didnt question why-

"So Eren, why didn't you try to escape from the Walls?".

Nevermind.

 **Levi's POV**

Arranged in a loose circle around our HQ was roughly 15 titans, ranging from 4 meter classes to one as tall as 20 meters layered in stone. Judging from the deliberate way they held themselves they were all shifters.

Scattered between them was about 40 to 50 human soldiers. They were all wearing the same rough cloth that Eren and the rest had been wearing, only they also had layers of some type of armor over them, as well as an oddly shaped metal bowl covering their heads. Most were holding guns, although there were also two large cannons pointed at the HQ, mounted on metal boxes with wheels.

"Captain." Petra's voice was tinged with fear. "What do we do?"

I gritted my teeth. Even I couldn't defeat so many titans at once, and there were also the human soldiers to worry about. If we focused on the titans the humans would shoot us down, and if we focused on the humans the titans would have the upper hand.

"They've disabled our heavy weaponry." Erwin looked over the twisted wrecks that used to be cannons littering the area. "And judging by the looks of it they've also blocked off the roads leading into the area." Just over the horizon I could see clouds of steam rising over the roads that lead to the HQ.

"S-so what do you propose we do?" Nile stuttered out. He was trying his best to look composed, but his legs were shaking and his eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets in fear.

Erwin clenched his jaw. "Levi, take your squad and aim for those titans." He pointed at a 15 meter class, flanked by two 6 meter classes. "The rest of us will hold the flanks. Once you defeat them, we'll push through the gap and disperse into the forest."

"Eren Yaeger."

Erwin starts, and I twirled around to see the creepiest fucking Titan I had ever seen.

Its skin was pure black, and looked similar to tough leather. Its eyes were solid red, and glowed slightly, even in the bright morning sun. Small jagged bones stuck out at various points on its body. Its teeth were sharp, the canines extending over the lip, and on its back were two enormous folded wings.

"Leola Asturias. Soren Dubois." The Titan stepped forward, claws extending from his fingers as he did. "We know you have our men."

It stopped, extending its wings to their full extent. "Release them, and no harm will befall you. Otherwise, we will blanket the ground with your corpses and turn this base into a sea of fire."

"What the hell is going on out here?"

I turned around and saw Soren running towards us. Judging by the steaming stumps that were once his arms he had somehow sliced or even chewed his arms off to escape the restraints we had hastily clamped onto him. His eyes were full of horrified anger and he was shaking slightly.

"Lieutenant what are you doing?" A somewhat panicked expression flickered over the Titan's face, which would have been almost comical if an entire army under its command wasn't surrounding us.

"Sir, we are here to rescue yo-"

"Rescue?"

"Yes sir. You did not return from your rescue attempt into the Walls, and so-"

"My orders were to hold the forward observation post until further instructions!"

He took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself. "Need I remind you, that we are alone in this war Lieutenant? The enemy has allies in the Middle East and Western Asia, and already substantially outnumbers us across all fronts. If we are to have any hope of victory in the battlefield we need every ally we can get!"

The Titan shifted uneasily. "I am aware of that sir."

If you are aware of this, then what," he took in another deep breath and exhaled, "what on earth would possess you to lead an armed mission directly into the only neutral state left in Europe?"

I heard the signature sound of a 3DMG being fired, except it was more mechanical and higher in pitch than the ones used by the Corps. A soldier in a 3DMG swings down beside the Winged Titan, and snaps to attention, being his flattened hand to his forehead.

"Sir, we have caught two carriages attempting to enter the area! One is carrying six Military Police members, the other is carrying the Wallian Commander in Chief."

Nile gasped. "Zackley?"

"Darius Zackley?" Soren looked like he was on the verge of a heart attack. "What are you doing? Release them at once!"

"Sir, so-"

"We are on a diplomatic mission into the Walls! Release the captured officials, and leave your titan forms at once before i court martial you all!"

The troops looked at each other, before reluctantly leaving their Titan forms and lowering their weapons. Out of the Winged Titan's form stepped a small, sharply dressed man, who immediately walked to stand beside Soren.

He turned back to us with a somewhat pained smile. "My apologies for breaking out of your cell. I believe that we were in the midst of negotiations?"

 **Reiner's POV**

"No."

Both Annie and I stood there, shocked, as Warchief Zeke shook his head.

"W-what do you mean no?" I pointed down at the camp, the very same one that we had attacked and the one that was now holding my best friend prisoner.

"Their camp is too well protected now, and they've already called in reinforcements. We don't have many titans left, attacking will just endanger our lives for no gain."

He reached over to his right ear with his left hand and scratched it. "We will rescue Bertholdt later. Our main priority now is gaining the Coordinate."

I leapt to my feet, sending the cup of tea near me flying.

"Why?"

Zeke looked up at me. "Excuse me?"

"Bertholdt and I have been blindly following you for years now!" Annie opens her mouth to say something, but I cut her off, too furious to stop talking.

"We left our homes when we were just children, forced to join what was practically a suicide mission, to tear down the Walls of our greatest enemy. We were told for years that the Walls betrayed us, destroyed our country and our way of life, and are evil enough to justify the genocide of their entire population."

Zeke calmly reached for the pot of tea. In fury I kicked it aside, splashing boiling hot tea beside him. Annie's eyes widened in shock, and Zeke simply looked up at me with a curious expression.

"But it's all a lie! None of them even knew where we were! Not one of the people we killed even knew that they left our country for dead!"

I jab at Zeke. "Why are we fighting? Don't give me the same 'cursed history' spiel that was jammed into our heads! I know it's a lie! Tell me! Why are we fighting to destroy the Walls?"

Zeke doesn't respond, instead his hand drifts over to the spike ring on his finger. I reach for a knife, fully prepared to fight if I had to.

Annie tugged at my sleeve. "Reiner, I don't think this is a-"

"You stay out of this!" I wheel on her. "You're no better than him! For who knows how long you've been distant from us, from the day we met you you've never divulged even a hint of information to us, your comrades, about the world! I wanted to ask you, but Bertholdt the lovesick idiot-" I ignore her shocked gasp "-pressured me away from doing that, saying that you would reveal what was beyond the shores of the Hometown once you were ready."

"Well, Bertholdt is now captured, interrogated, maybe dead! Are you ready now?" I snatch up the knife, gripping it so hard small wisps of steam waft up from my fingers. "Tell me Warchief, otherwise I won't fight! What is this all for?"

For a moment we stare at each other, my eyes wide with anger, Annie's eyes wide with shock and Zeke still wearing that condescendingly calm expression. Out of the corner of my eye i can see a Titan running directly towards us, but I ignore it. Zeke however, turns and looks at it.

"Well? What will it-"

He cuts me off. "Annie. Tell him about his country's history." His eyes narrowed at the rapidly arriving Titan. "I have to welcome our new guest."

 **Levi's POV**

The room's atmosphere was surprisingly quiet and relaxed, for the people that were in it.

Erwin, Nile, Zackley, Hange and I were seated in a rough line across one side of the interrogation room. We had no weapons or even any physical barrier separating us from the shifters on the other side at Erwin's insistence, who wanted to show that the Walls were trusting and confident in the goodwill of their visitors. The only other furniture in the room was a table with glasses of water on it.

I internally snorted to myself. Right, because Nile is the type to trust a Titan shifter.

On the other side was Soren, who was busy setting up the materials for his presentation, and his aide, who was standing off to one side with a stick.

I studied the aide more closely. For someone with that imposing a Titan form he was visually unimpressive. His face gave off the impression of a man trying to act brave, one who was perpetually frightened by everything around him but tried to put on a front to save face. He was small, possibly even shorter than me, although his build suggested most of that tiny frame was muscle. His eyes were twitching nervously across the room, seemingly not to gather information about us but jumpily sweeping the area for potential threats.

Soren carefully pinned the map onto the wall, making sure to smooth out the creases. He took a large gulp of water, took the stick from his aid and cleared his throat.

"About 150 years ago, one of your Kings gained possibly one of the strongest Titan powers in history. It was called the Coordinate, due to its power to coordinate untold numbers of titans at once. Most shifters who could control titans could only do it in a small radius, a few hundred meters at best, but yours allowed the user to control millions across thousands of miles of land. With this power you established dominance across the continent, conquering all that stood before you to the point that only four countries remained. Somewhere along the line four walls were built, to further cement the aura of invincibility your nation had amassed."

I frowned. "Four? There are only three Walls."

"I was getting to that. Roughly 105 Years ago, a war broke out, with the Walls and the Hometown on one side and the Citadel and Stronghold on the other. With all your titans so easily coordinated, we suffered several crushing defeats, bringing the Walls to the verge of victory."

"In a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the war, we assassinated your Queen. The King, your 145th if I remember correctly, went mad with grief. In his mourning, he completely neglected the war, releasing the vast hordes of titans once under his command to ravage the Wallian armies, and some even began to wreak havoc upon your cities."

"The incoming reports of the devastation and bloodshed pushed the King to immediately sign a peace treaty. So desperate was he to end the war that he accepted one of history's most punishing treaties, stripping your nation of all her colonies and completely abandoning her Hometown ally. "

"Widespread riots and protests broke out. Many called for reentry into the war, others for the King's abdication. Fearing the breakout of a civil war or worse, the toppling of the monarchy, the First King immediately used the Coordinate to wipe out all the memories of the Walls, and moved all the titans between the third and fourth walls, so that no citizen could ever again leave the Walls and rediscover the outside world. He also demanded that we never again interfere in the Wall's affairs, threatening to unleash his still formidable Titan forces upon us if we did. We agreed."

"It is for this reason that for the past 100 years we have left your Walls alone. All the King's successors continued his isolation policy, and so rebuffed any attempts at negotiation. Only now, with a new bloodline and new Queen are we again attempting negotiation."

He leaned back, signifying that he was done but not far enough for it to be interpreted as arrogance. "I assume this answers your question?"

Erwin sat there silently, staring at the map pinned onto the wall before he realised that Soren was talking to him. "Yes, off course. But we do have some further inquiries. Hange, can I have the list please? Hange?"

"Quiet!" Hange hissed at him, furiously scribbling on an increasingly crumpled looking notebook. "I have to write this down!"

A almost amused look flickered over Soren's face. "Well, she's spirited."

Erwin sighed. "Yes, she is." Reaching around her, he grabbed a piece of paper sticking out of a thick file and pulled it out. Before the interrogation, Erwin had compiled a list of questions which he needed to write a report to the Capital. He held it up, his mouth open, before frowning in disappointment.

"Its smudged."

"We will deal with your questions later Smith." Zackley leaned forward, his face unreadable. "Mr Dubois, while I trust in the integrity of you and your troops, i feel that negotiations would be more conducive if conducted without an army besieging our Headquarters."

Soren nodded. "Understood. My aide and I will remain, while we will send our troops back to our advanced base outside the Walls. "

"With all due respect sir," the aide stepped forward. "I would like to keep a small contingent within the Walls with us. While i trust in the goodwill of the Wallian people, we are still at war with several other countries. Should they attempt another breach, the lives of not only us but our hosts will be in jeopardy. I would like to propose keeping a small group of soldiers here, to protect us while we carry out negotiations."

Zackley, Erwin and Nike exchanged looks, and Zackley cleared his throat. "We accept on the condition that the size of the unit does not surpass 15, and does not possess more than 3 shifters."

"Agreed. Ah, our troops will need an area to camp in."

"Your men can set up camp at the Northern training fields." Erwin stood up, holding out his hand to escort the two shifters out of the cell. "Will that be all?"

"Um, one more thing. What about my subordinates?"

"Your subordinates?" Understanding rippled across Erwin's face,. "Oh, you mean Eren and Leola. Yes, they will be released at once." Erwin gestured towards two guards standing outside the interrogation room, who snapped to attention and ran off.

"Levi, Hange, go speak to the men. Alert them of the new arrangements."

I nod and walk out of the room, Hange trailing behind me. We walk in silence for a moment, before she catches up to me, hastily stuffing her notes into her bag, a slightly wondrous look on her face.

"What are you so cheerful about."

"Do you know what this means?"

"That we now have a entire army of Titan shifters staring us down wherever we go?"

"No! It means that now we have unlimited test subjects!" Cackling like a maniac, she snatched up a clipboard and ran for her lab, shouting for Moblit to prepare her a solvent.

 **Bertholdt's POV**

 _Air. I need air._

I could feel myself suffocating within the flesh of my own Titan. The steam, which normally was only coming from outside the Titan, was now coming from inside as well as it was dissolving. Scalding water vapour burned my throat and nostrils. I let out a strangled gasp, feeling myself lurch back into unconsciousness…

Hands grab mine and pull, and suddenly sunlight floods my eyes, temporarily blinding me. I cough, sucking in deep breaths of air until my lungs no longer hurt from deprivation. I blink rapidly and squint, trying to clear my vision.

As the fog clears from my eyes, I can see two large soldiers standing over me, several more standing behind them, their guns trained on me.

"What th-"

"On your feet!" They each grab one of my arms and haul me roughly into an upright position, and half escort, half drag me forward. I stumble clumsily with them, and they lead me into a large tent.

Inside is a large wooden desk two chairs, one which is a comfortable leather armchair, the other is a bare wooden chair. They force me into the latter and handcuff me to said chair, before pulling out a syringe and stabbing it into my nape, causing cold fluid to flood into my muscles.

"Ahh!" I struggle against my handcuffs, causing them to grab my arms and cuff me in the head with the butt of a rifle. "Get away from me you-"

"Gentlemen please, there's no need to be so rough with the prisoner." They immediately release me, and snap to attention.

A young man strides into my field of vision. He's dressed in a green uniform, with several medals pinned onto his left breast. He doesn't seem to be much older than me, and strangely enough his expression is sympathetic, rather than mocking or stern.

"Hello Bertholdt."

 _How did-_

"Sorry about the needle, it's a shifting suppressor. We can't have you blowing up our encampment now can we? It would be somewhat troublesome."

My head tilts, sending him a silent message. _Do I know you?_

"Don't recognise me? I'm hurt, we used to be neighbors remember?"

My eyes widen. "Kurt?"

His eyes wrinkle in a genuine, if somewhat sad smile. "You still remember me, I'm touched."

"How did- what is-"

"Oh, you're talking about this?" He gestures towards his uniform. "Well, this is where I was sent they separated us."

I blink in surprise. "This is where you ended up?"

"Yes. To be truthful I didn't expect this either. Remember what our leaders preached?" He holds his hands up in a somewhat mocking imitation of the grand way our leaders used to speak to us. "Destroy the cursed history of the Walls! Fight to tear those walls down and avenge our people!" He chuckles bitterly. "And the very first thing they teach me when I am enlisted in this army is that the Walls are neutral and so off limits."

"But, but they said- this army?"

"Yep. While most of you guys got drafted into the Hometown army, I was sent to another one as a sort of diplomatic offering."

I squint at him. "You seem very calm about this."

"Eh." He shrugs, causing his medals to tinkle. "I've learnt to accept it. Sure, I'll probably never see my ancestral shores again, but I'll never go hungry and my family is safe as long as I don't desert. Besides, I've learnt the truth about this world from within the army."

"The-the truth."

"Yep. Be honest with me Bertholdt, didn't you ever question what the world was like other than the Walls and the Hometown? Weren't you curious why the walls were described as aggressors and capable enough to rob us of our territories in Spain and France, yet were now reduced to living within four walls, imprisoned within three by titans?" He scrutinized my expression carefully, before shaking his head. "Wait what am I saying, of course you didn't. I didn't either. The narrative of the so-called Wallian cursed history was jammed so far down our throats that we never questioned anything, not until we got out here and learnt the truth. You from your near suicidal Mission into the Walls, me from being sent to the Citadel army."

"Wait, the Citadel, what's that?"

"I'm sorry Bertholdt, but that's classified. We're not allowed to talk about this to people from the Hometown."

He turned to the soldiers. "Bring him to Prison Tent 3, and get him a medic, some of his wounds aren't finished healing yet.." Looking back at me, he shook his head sympathetically. "Count your blessings Bertholdt. You don't want to be in the Walls, not with what's going to happen soon."

"What's going to happen?" I struggle against the soldier's rough hands as they tug me away. "Tell me! At least let me warn Reiner and Annie!"

"You're a brave soldier Bertholdt, but I'm sorry. We'll let you out in a couple months. Don't worry though, you'll still get to see your Mission completed. The Walls won't survive until then."

 **Mystery person's POV** ( :l i know what you guys are thinking, but its hard writing in first person form, and this is the only way to keep the mystery )

 _Who the fuck designed these lanterns?_

I silently cursed to myself as I squinted in the near total blackness. I had no idea how anyone in the Walls walked around at night while holding lanterns as dim as these. The titans didn't even need to break the walls, these people would probably kill themselves off tripping.

I carefully shuffled through the list. Armin Arlert maybe? No, his physical scores were pitiful. There was no way he could pull off this task. Jean Kirstein? No, he wasn't famous enough. Connie Springer or Sasha Blouse? No, even worse.

No, no, no! I hurled the papers off the desk in frustration. Why couldn't the commanders have slept in community bunks as well? It would be so much more easier if I could have easy access to Erwin, Levi or even his squad. They were all skilled enough to do it, and they were famous enough to attract the attention we needed. Instead here I was sifting through the dregs of the Survey Corps.

Wait a minute… I began frantically ruffling through the files again. _Who was that girl Eren grew up with?_ The Asian. There she is!

I held up the file triumphantly. Mikasa Ackerman. Her test scores were perfect, she scored highest in her Trainee Corps for physical combat. She would be more than capable of carrying out the task. And she was well known, not as famous as Levi or Erwin, but famous enough for the papers. And she slept in the recruit bunks, which were lightly guarded enough for me to sneak in.

I signed. "I know you can't hear me, but I'm sorry for this Mikasa. Hope you won't mind being turned into a killer."


	14. The Fuel Begins to Smoulder

**Erwin's POV**

"I don't trust them."

I look over at Levi, who is agitatedly pacing back and forth in my office, his eyes stormy and his countenance aggravated.

Hanji shifts, her eyes tracking his pacing back and forth. "Awww, is someone jealous?"

He halts, and turns to look at her. "Excuse me?"

"I'm just saying short stuff, I haven't seen you this agitated in a long time."

"I'm not jealous!"

Hanji turns her chair around and leaned on the backrest, her voice softer. "Look, it's perfectly natural. You used to care for Eren, and so did your squad. But now he resents you, while he looks up to that Soren guy." To prove her point she gestures out the window, where Eren is listening in rapture to the white-haired man who is holding up a book to him.

"But it's not him that I don't trust."

My eyebrows furrow. "It's not?"

"No Erwin, I've been a Squad Leader for years now. That bastard may be arrogant, scornful and egotistical, but I can tell he actually tolerates the brat. No, it's the girl."

"The girl? Are you referring to Leola?"

He nods. "Look at her." He gestures out the same window, where the red haired girl has slid beside him and is looking at the same book.

Hanji looks at him skeptically. "Um… what am i supposed to see here?"

He narrows his eyes at her. "Can't you tell? She's hiding something."

"Levi, I'm sure-"

He cuts me off. "No Erwin, I've spent enough time in the Underground to know when people are keeping a secret. There's something off about that girl." his hands twitch by his side as he tries to explain himself.

"It's almost as if she knows that what she is keeping is severe and a terrible secret, and she's guilty and wants to tell him, but she's too afraid of the consequences." He folds his arms. "Mark my words Erwin, that bitch is keeping something from us, and I'm going to find out what it is."

 **Mikasa's POV**

"Is he eating in the mess hall, or outside?"

Commander Erwin frowns. "Apologies Ackerman, but due to security concerns Eren must eat outside with the rest of the foreign soldiers. They will only be allowed inside if bad weather makes that impractical."

"I understand, commander. Thank you." I salute and head back to my lunch table.

As soon as I sit down the others all turn to me. Armin looks at me hopefully. "So?"

I shake my head, trying not to wince at how Armin immediately deflates and blinks rapidly. I knew he had been desperately hoping to see Eren again, if only to see whether he was still mad at him.

"I guess I could look for him after I'm done..."

"Wait, what's that white haired guy doing?" Connie points over to the door of the mess wall, where the white haired shifter with Eren, Soren, was indeed speaking with Erwin, discreetly pointing at our table and holding up a syringe. Erwin strokes his chin a few times before nodding, and the shifter heads back outside, looking satisfied.

Armin frowns. "Not sure. Maybe he's-"

"Mikasa!" To my surprise the door swings open, revealing Eren, who heads over towards our table, one hand holding a large tray and the other dragging Leola along by hers.

He sets his tray down, grabs my shoulder and pulls me in for a quick hug, and I can't decide whether to be pleased at what this hand is doing or pissed at what the other hand is grabbing.

"Eren? What are you-"

He pulls away, letting go of Leola's hand in the process, and pulls out a handkerchief, which he places under his neck. "Soren convinced Erwin to let me sit with you guys."

"The Commander agreed to that?"

His mouth twists. "Well sort of, we have to take a couple of injections so that we can't shift for another 30 minutes." He holds out his left arm proudly, showing a sort of clear bandage with a white cloth center, and turns to show that something similar is stuck to his neck.

"So here I am."

"Eren!" Armin snaps out of his stupor and gives Eren a large, yet nervous and somewhat scared smile.

"Hey Ar." Eren smiles back, causing Armin's smile to brighten and his body to slump in relief. He had apparently decided that since i was trustworthy, Armin was too, although he hasn't quite forgiven the rest of our comrades, judging by the way his smile falters when his eyes flicker over the rest of the people at the table.

"So, what's-"

But he's interrupted when Sasha lets out a ear-splitting squeal and dives for Eren. I leap to my feet and Leola holds up her arms in a defensive posture, but Eren instead hurriedly pulls the tray he brought back.

Its then that i notice that it is piled high with several lamb chops, drenched in a thick gravy sauce with small greenish herbs sprinkled over it. It smells heavenly, and i can sense almost the entire mess hall looking over at us.

Armin swallows. "Is-is that meat for us?"

"Yeah, i figured you deserved to eat proper meat, not that tasteless thing we ate a few days ago." Here!" He pulls out a fork, and drops the biggest serving onto Armin's plate, before dropping equally large ones on mine and Leola's. I spear the tender meat with my fork and bring it to my mouth, suppressing a moan as the heavenly tastes and textures wash over my tongue.

Leola's eyes flash. "Eren, are you sure we should be handing out-"

"Oh no, it's alright! The rations Soren's unit brought were for the full platoon, but only about a squad's worth of troops is left, so we've got plenty of spares."

"Still, did you have to bring that many? There's at least twenty here."

"Well," Eren's eyes flicker over to Sasha, who has drool running down her chin and would likely have long tackled Eren to the ground and stolen the tray if Jean and Connie weren't grabbing on to both her arms. "It was a precaution."

"Anyway, here." He pushes the tray to the others. "Help yourself." Sasha and Jean, apparently unaffected by Eren's less than enthusiastic tone, immediately snatch up pieces for themselves, but the rest hesitate before reaching over for one.

For a minute or so we eat in silence, the only sounds being chewing and the jealous muttering from other tables, before Armin breaks the silence.

"So Eren, how have you been?"

"I'm great! They feed us really well in the military, can't you tell from my complexion?"

"I'll be surprised if anyone can tell that from your complexion, seeing how much they've slashed our fruit rations."

"Come in Leola, just because they added in additional meat to compensate doesn't mean we'll suddenly leak oil from every pore on our face."

"No, the fact that meat makes up basically 50% of our diet means that our

Sasha gives a jealous groan, her pork chop still hanging from her mouth. "You get that much meat? You guys are sooo lucky…

Eren's eyes dull considerably. Pain, sorrow, sadness flash through them, but they disappear as fast as they came and Eren replies in a voice that seems almost too cheerful. "Well, there has to be some way to compensate for the fighting."

I gape at him. "Fighting?"

There it is again, the flash. "I'm a solider Mikasa, that means fighting in whatever war we have." His head tilts. "Why as you so shocked? I told you about this in the cells a few days ago."

My heart sinks as I process his words. For some the idea hadn't fully sunk in until now. Eren, fighting other people, other shifters. Being thrust into a war which he had had almost zero training for, against people which posed a threat far beyond anything the Walls had.

I tentatively reach out and grip his shoulder, like if i grab too hard the layer of skin will fall off, revealing grievous injuries racked up from three months of combat. "Are you-"

"Relax Mikasa, I'm fine. No need to keep babying me." Now it's Armin's turn to wince, but the fact that he says this to me with a smile means that it makes me feel relief, rather than hurt.

"But still Eren, I'm your sister, i'm supposed to take care of you."

I hear a snort, and someone drawls from behind him. "Yeah, because you've done a fantastic job of it so far."

"Leola!" Eren looks over, his tone surprised and slightly affronted, but that doesn't stop me from replying, my voice as sarcastic as I can make it. "I don't know. At least I made it more than three months."

Her face shoots over, her expression murderous, and for a moment I brace myself for her possibly taking a swing at me, but Eren grabs her arm, looking at her with an expression that I can't see but immediately causes hers to soften.

She murmurs, soft enough that only Eren and I can hear. "Fine fine, I'll be the better person."

I open my mouth to offer another retort, but my planned insult dies in back of my throat when Eren turns towards me, a strange combination that is pleading, sadness and apologeticness.

It takes me a moment to decipher, but when I do, I swallow my words and simply take another bite of my food.

 **Kurt's POV**

"Sir, would you like to take a break?" I look up to see my subordinate, Colt, looking down at me with concern. "You have been working non-stop for the last eight hours."

"I have?" He gives a quick nod, pointing to the clock on the wall, showing that it was 3.16. I blink, realising that I haven't moved from this chair since 7 in the morning. I grimace and lean forward slightly, feeling my damp uniform cling to my back and unstick from the leather chair.

Speaking of sweat… "How's Bertholdt?"

"He's lost quite a bit of weight, despite always finishing his meals, and the doctor reports that his insomnia is worsening. Oh, and he's sent another request to see you sir."

"Hahhhh…" I massage my temples. "So bothersome…"

"Sir, if I may ask, why not just go visit him? That would likely help him snap out of his depression."

I look at him critically. "Colt, you forget, I might be an officer, but I'm still a Hometownian commanding mostly Citadelian troops. The last thing i need is for people to think I'm showing any favoritism, especially towards an old friend of mine. I rarely make it a habit to visit a prisoner more than once, i can't go see him twice."

He nods. "That is true. In that case do you want me to bring you any coffee sir?"

I give him a faint smile. "It's ok, we'll head to the mess hall." I stand up, feeling my muscles protest the movement after hours of stillness. "It's time we ate anyway. Maybe I'll just write him a note and pass that to the prison guards."

"Sir!" Another one of my subordinates, a new transfer named Valeria, brisk walks in with a message. She salutes, then hands it to me with both arms.

A smile spreads across my face. "Scratch that, bring the coffee into my tent, I've got an important report I need to type out." Cracking my knuckles, i begin tapping on the keyboard, expressing my need to send troops to the Walls immediately.

 **Mikasa's POV**

"Break time! 15 minutes, then fall in back here!"

I gulp down the water from my canteen, before collapsing into a bench, savouring the rest. Our captains had thrown us into some of the toughest drills we had ever done immediately after lunch, and my muscles were screaming in protest. The meat Eren had given us wasn't helping either, delicious as it was it became increasingly difficult to keep down as the day progressed. Although some weren't so lucky, judging from the nearby scene of Sasha crying over a bucket we use to vomit into.

"Oi, Kicasa is it?"

I look over to see Leola looking at me with an ambiguous expression that is somehow simultaneously haughty, resigned, and hesitant.

"It's Mikasa," i bite out. "What do you want?"

She swallows, almost painfully. "Can I speak with you?"

"We're doing that now."

"I mean, in private." She gestures to the female barracks. "There's… something we need to discuss."

Curiosity, rather than courtesy, drives me to follow her as we walk deeper into the barracks until she stops.

"Ok, there's no one here. What do you want?"

"Look, we both like Eren. I won't pretend otherwise and I'm smart enough to notice you two have a history together." Her mouth twists. "And I know he wants us to get along. He didn't react much today but I can tell he was bothered by our, ah, slight disagreements."

You don't need to say that, I can tell too.

"And I know you can tell too."

Nevermind.

"So let's agree that we don't fight in front of him, like we did today. The last thing we want is for him to be pissed at both of us. If we're gonna fight, we do it really discreetly or when he isn't around." She reaches out her hand. "Deal?"

I frown, before reluctantly nodding and extended my hand. We shake, and this time she doesn't attempt to crush my hand again.

"Deal."

"Ok, now let's get back outside before either one of our superi-" her head snaps up. "Do you hear that?"

I look around. "Hear what?"

"It's... footsteps but they're too quiet, like they're trying to hide-" her eyes widen and she whips out a gun, pointing it behind me. "Get dow-" but a dart buries itself into her arm, and she faints.

I whirl around, only to see nothing. I lunge for Leola's gun and snatch it up, before pain shoots through my neck and I pass out.

 **Mystery character's POV**

I pull out my tranquilizer dart from the Asian's neck and place it back into its case. I reach down and grab Mikasa, before pulling her up and slinging her arm over my shoulder, accidentally stepping on Leola as I do.

"Sorryyy, I'll come back for you in a minute." The Asian is surprisingly heavy despite her only slightly above average build. She must work out a lot.

I drag her into a nearby supply storage room. Dumping her unceremoniously on a few crates, i lock the door behind me.

I've only got a few minutes, so i have to make sure it's all ready now.

I hurriedly pull the 3DMG off my waist, and make sure that all its components are in working order. I had bumped it into a wall on the way here and the last thing I wanted was for her to fail because she fell off a roof or something.

Good. I set it aside, satisfied that everything was still perfect, and pick up a sheathed knife. Unsheathing it, I hold up the knife appreciatively, looking at the zigzagging red lines resembling veins on the blade. This had probably cost a small fortune, and I knew they were also really time consuming to make, especially since they had to design this one in the style of Wallian knives.

A faint groaning sound tears me away from looking at the knife. I place the weapon down and take out the second syringe. It had to be administered at the precise moment, otherwise it wouldn't work.

Now! I inject the syringe into her nape, and she stiffens before relaxing with a subtle sigh.

I breathe in relief. Looks like she isn't one of the few people who were allergic to this. Sheathing the knife, i place it into her hand, and attach the 3DMG to her waist.

She stirs, and looks around, blinking slightly.

"When you regain consciousness, scratch that when you regain free will, you will do exactly as I say."


	15. Murder Of Hope And People

**Author's notes:** Mild chapter spoilers, sometime between the last chapter and this one Eren told Soren everything that had happened to him between Chapters 2 to 11, just to clarify because otherwise Soren would appear like he knows things that he isn't supposed to know. (Also I couldn't find anyway to sneak the explanation in that wasn't clunky or broke up the flow, hence this note.)

 **Levi's POV**

"Levi" I looked over at Erwin, who is in turn looking down in disapproval at my fork. "Isn't that for Hanji?"

I placed the roasted meat I had taken from Hanji's plate on mine, before spearing some of her salad. "If she's dumb enough to leave food like this unattended, it's her fault if she doesn't get to eat any of it."

"Still Levi, that's her lunch." He paused as I tore open a silvery package and took out one of the clear containers filled with a whitish solid, 'pudding', they had called it. "The Citadelian soldiers only sent over enough for the three of us and your squad, and you've already finished yours."

"We still have the soup and bread we're giving to the cadets don't we? She can eat that."

Erwin simply slumped in resignation and took another bite of his salad.

I paused, my fork suspended halfway to my mouth. "Speaking of her, where is she?"

"She went down to speak with some of the Citadelian soldiers about her experiments."

I sighed. Knowing that darned Four Eyes she would pester them until she either scared the lot of them away or got shot by a terrified guard. Placing the remaining meat and salad between two slices of bread, I walked off to go find her.

 **Eren's POV**

"You've improved." I look up to see Armin regarding the chessboard with a semi-impressed look.

"Armin, I've only taken five of your pawns. All I have left is two bishops and a rook."

"Exactly, you've improved."

I shake my head in disbelief. "How bad was i at chess back then?"

He simply grins at me as he moves his queen and captures my only remaining rook.

"Eren." Soren walks over to us, holding a file in one arm and a pair of scissors in the other. "I need to speak with you. Am i interrupting?"

I smile at him, standing up and dusting myself off. "No, not at all."

Armin laughs. "You just want to escape don't you?"

"You can't prove that!" I yell back at him before following Soren, where his serious demeanor immediately causes my smile to fade.

"Soren? Where-" he holds up his arm,and motions for him to follow him. We walk all the way to the command tent before he turns around to me.

"Ok, what it is?"

"We've found them."

"Who?"

"Zeke, Annie and Reiner, we've found them."

I freeze. "Where?"

"They're hiding out in an abandoned village near the edge of the Walls. One of our spies spotted someone strongly resembling Zeke repairing his knife at Trost, and followed him back to that area."

Excitement wells up within me. Finally, we had them! "So what's our plan? We could take Leola and Ben and surround the-"

He shakes his head. "Don't worry about that Eren, we've already finished the planning of the operation." He opens the file and shows me a rudimentary sketch of a village with several arrows crisscrossing over it. We will launch a joint operation between the Survey Corps and our troops, maybe with Garrison support."

He unfolds the map and holds it up for me. "You, Leola and I will flush them out, while the rest of our troops will form a cordon and net them."

"But why? We've got more than enough Titan shifters to take care of them ourselves."

"Eren, you know very well how suspicious the Wallian populace is of Titans, let alone Titan Shifters. The intelligence reports we're receiving state that while some are hopeful, the vast majority of the population views us with fear, suspicion or outright hostility. Why else do you think we've prohibited any soldiers from leaving the Survey Corps Headquarters."

He placed the file on the table, and pulls out a small cigar from his pocket. "This operation will let us kill multiple birds with one stone. We can destroy the last hostile titan force within the Walls, we increase public trust in us and our willingness to work with them, both the Citadelian troops and the Survey Corps get hailed as heroes for avenging the Marian Genocide, and we gain a few new Titans to equip ourselves and the Survey Corps with.

"However Eren, we need a few Survey Corps soldiers to follow us when we carry out the operation. We need them to lead us through, since we're unfamiliar with the style and strength of architecture here. We know from our reports who is the most skilled but you've had firsthand experience, do you have anyone in mind?"

I grit my teeth before sighing. "Captain Levi."

"Levi? Are you sure? I know that you and him had a… history together."

I swallow bitterly. "When i first came here, he was the one that got closest to beating me without any heavy weaponry. I don't need to like him to know he's skilled. And if you need anyone else, take someone from his Squad."

"Alright. Is there anyone else with the same surname as him? We need his full name for record purposes."

I nod. "Yep, Mikasa. They're both Ackermans." I frown."Speaking of which, have you seen Mikasa? I haven't seen her since yesterday."

He snips off the end of the cigar and brings a lighter up to it. "No, I haven't. Ask Leola, i saw her pulling your friend aside last night before dinner. Ah, speak of the devil."

Just as he finishes saying that Leola stumbles up to us, gasping and leaning on my shoulder.

"Oh hey Leola! Have you seen Mika-are you ok?" She looks surprisingly fatigued, her fiery hair is stuck to her face by sweat and her breaths and short yet laboured. "What happened?"

She gulps, looking strangely nervous. "Uh, I, well-"

We're cut off by a blood-curdling scream, coming from right inside the tent.

 **Hanji's POV**

"I'm sorry Miss, but we're only supposed to shift if needed, or directly ordered to by our commanders." The soldier, a young, blonde man, shrugs apologetically and wanders off.

I stomp my foot on the ground in frustration. I couldn't believe this!

I finally had a chance to work with and experiment on Titan shifters other than Eren, some of which had powers and experience far beyond Eren! But none of them would cooperate! All I needed was one shift to gather information, was that so hard?

I yell, causing many of the present soldiers to start and give me dirty looks. One of them openly curses me as he wipes a dark-colored drink off his shirt.

"Uh, Squad Leader, considering who we're with maybe we shouldn't be so-"

"Miss Zoe." I turn around to see the seedy looking guy with the stick from a few days ago. "To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?"

I cross my arms defiantly, in no mood to be civil. "My visit is far from a pleasure, thank you, it's for science."

"I see. I assume that this is also the reason you are harassing my men?"

Moblit nervously mumbles beside me. "No, we didn't mean to-"

"That's right!"

Moblit whimpers beside me, and I recoil very slightly, expecting an outburst. Instead, his lips quirk upwards. "How refreshing."

When i frown in confusion, he continues. "I've met many Wallians before, but all have treated Titans as demons or pests, things only to be feared or destroyed, never something to be studied or to be fascinated by." He sighs. "Never let it be said that i discourage scientific growth for our allies."

He turns around, gesturing for me to follow him. "Come, let me fill out the necessary paperwork and we then can arrange for a suitable… demonstration of our Titans' prowess and abilities."

I squeal and practically skip after him, dragging Moblit along. He yells something at me about drool, but i ignore him, so busy mentally planning out what experiments i want to do first that i don't notice the man has stopped until i bump into him.

He adjusts his cap, and gives me a small nod. "Wait here Ms Zoe. I'll bring the paperwork."

I tremble in excitement, grabbing Moblit and shaking him in exuberation. _Finally! This was my chance to dissect and study other titan shifters! Maybe he'll let me see how he breathes fire, or how that one that's covered in stone keeps the stone attached to his body, or maybe-_

"Erm, excuse me miss." The same soldier from earlier is standing purposefully behind us, gripping some metal container that had been bent out of shape. "I need to speak to-"

"No! Don't disturb him." Out of the corner of my eye i can Moblit frantically shaking his head and making a slicing motion across his throat, but I'm too excited to care. I didn't want to delay the tests a single second longer than I needed to.

The soldier looks at me skeptically. "And why shouldn't I?"

"Well because-" I am cut off by a blood-curdling scream from inside the tent, and the sound of furniture crashing.

"Sir? Sir!" The man pushes me aside and runs into the tent. Moblit and I stare at each other for a moment, before rushing in ourselves.

The aide is slumped over the table, several bloody scratches criss-crossed over his back and a knife stabbed right into his heart. Two other soldiers are slumped in the corner, their throats slit, and the broken pieces of a lamp and a coat hanger lie on the floor.

And standing over this scene, her hand still hovering above her knife and her clothes splattered with blood, was a very familiar Asian girl.

"Mikasa?"


	16. Battle For Time Part 1

**Author's note:**

WARNING. Lots of sighing in this chapter, but hey, Pieck's now ICCWIWTR canon!

Oh yeah, just to clarify, the Colt I mentioned last chapter with Kurt isn't the manga Colt, I used his name as a placeholder a while ago and forgot to change it when posting the chapter.

 **Jean's POV**

I duck down back into the trench as gunfire flies over my head, trying not to cough from the acrid smell of the smoke the enemy is using to screen their men. Bursts of light flash from the smoke as off in the distance unseen guns and cannons continuously fire at us, forcing us to stay within the trenches just to stay alive.

"Take heart soldiers!" The Garrison commander whose name for the life of me I couldn't remember, shouts. "We don't need to win! We just need to delay them until the evacuation can be completed. Remember, we have the defensive advantage!"

Connie emits what sounds like a unstable breathy laugh. "Lotta good that's gonna do us. What with-" gunfire drowns out his voice "-lucky if we can even hold it for a minute."

"Firing points!" Captain Levi's voice cuts through the chaos. "They're coming!"

I peer out of the trench. True enough hundreds of them can be seen through the smoke screen, their shadows growing smaller and fainter as they ran towards us.

Gripping my rifle, I place it on the crudely carved slot meant to keep it stable, and take aim at a soldier.

Somewhere to my left something explodes, and the wreckage of a cannon flies over my head, but I ignore it, focusing on my target. _Remember_ , it had been drilled into our head before the battle, _their rifles can fire more one bullet at a time, but ours can't, so make your shots count_.

"Captain!" One of the members of Levi's squad, Gunther I think, points towards the horizon. Yellow light shines through the smoke, and lightning bolts rain down. Out of the smoke emerges multiple Titan forms, at least a dozen, ranging from roughly double the height of the soldiers they're marching alongside to 15 meter classes.

"Captain! Do we-"

"No!" Levi's grip tightens on his rifle, but he doesn't move an inch. "We're not leaving this spot until-"

"Evacuation is complete!" Several Garrison soldiers are frantically waving to us from the gate, which judging from the noisy mechanical sounds they are preparing to close.

"Scratch that. Fall back! Back into the Walls!" In their panic, Sasha and two other soldiers push themselves out of the trenches, and try to run over open ground.

"No! Stay in the-" Levi never gets to finish his sentence, before an artillery shells rips the other two soldiers apart and sends shrapnel slicing across her face.

"Sasha!" Connie yells in horror as she collapses on the ground, clutching her face as blood drips out from her fingers. He lunges out of the trench and pulls her back in just as another explosion rips apart the ground where she was just moments ago.

"Come on! Move it!" I hook one of Sasha's arms over my neck, and half lead half drag her forward, through the criss-crossing trenches that we had dug around the gates. We rush backwards, the only protection we have the Wall cannons covering our retreat. Piercing whistling sounds fill the air, and I look up to see streaks of black smoke and fire shoot towards the top of the wall, covering it in explosions and silencing the Wall Cannons permanently.

The ground begins to shake, causing panicked screams. With no other choice, I toss Sasha over my shoulder, throwing my rifle to Connie, and we stumble past the gateway.

The gate falls, only to be stopped from closing completely by a gigantic hand.

 **Erwin's POV**

Pixis sighs, and points at the map, tracing a line from Trost to a point in the Wall halfway between Stohess and Ehrmich. "We have lost almost the entirety of Wall Rose. A small garrison in Trost is our only remaining foothold there, but the supply line is all but cut off, as we have had to supply it from over the Wall. It is also being bombarded daily. It cannot hold out for longer than three more days. While there are more pockets of resistance, we have no way of contacting them."

The official sitting opposite me, the newly minted Northern commander after his predecessor got eaten, cleared his throat. "Our counterattack attempts too have been less than successful. Huge numbers of our skilled soldiers were slaughtered in the early days of fighting. Not only are the current conscripts poorly trained and inexperienced, but they are vastly outclassed by the enemy." He pulled out several papers and passed them to Zackley. "There are reports of guns capable of firing hundreds of rounds continuously without stopping, and troops have reported being bombarded with no obvious signs of the enemy, indicating long range cannons, far beyond visual range. They also possess metal machines capable of moving of speeds beyond even horses and with the ability to carry dozens of men or entire cr"

"But there have been no more attacks over the past week?"

"No, but we believe the enemy is simply regrouping and pacifying it's new found territory before launching another assault."

"How is the inner Wall?"

"Ceaseless bombings everywhere by their flying machines, planes I believe, have all but destroyed morale. The enemy is using a type of powerful explosive, a single one has been reported to be enough to destroy several houses, as well as bombs that cause fast-spreading fires. The damage in the last day alone far surpasses the damage suffered during the Female Titan incident. Not to mention we are powerless to stop them, their machines fly too high for our cannons to shoot at them. "

"Erwin?"

"As of yet, our only advantages are their lack of knowledge of the land, and supply problems. My Scouts have managed to steal several documents, at horrific cost, which indicate that they can only support a small force in our Walls due to the needs of the war elsewhere."

Zackley sighs, and rests his chin on his tented fingers. "The technology of these foreign men are frightful. Flying machines? Explosives on a level we cannot even dream of reaching?"

Nile simply pushes a folder towards him. "We do have plans for a counterattack. The plan is to allow them to enter Stohess, which we will evacuate beforehand, which possesses the largest number of Garrison troops, as well as the most experienced Military Police. We will then use our 3DMGs in urban fighting to wear them down, before launching a powerful counterstroke with any and all available reserves. This will also allow us to link up again with pockets of resistance."

I clear my throat. "This will not work. I fought them in Karanese, where we attempted the same strategy. Once casualties for them mounted, they simply withdrew and used long range cannon fire to utterly destroy the district."

"Nor did it work in Trost." Pixis adds. "Not only do they have hundreds of normal titans under their control, they have multiple Titan shifters, many armored, which decimated the troops in urban fighting."

"Or perhaps we could simply use strength of numbers to overwhelm weak spots in their defenses. By all accounts we still outnumber them."

"The only problem is that we do not know where their weak spots are."

"Perhaps we could get the Survey Corps to launch probing attacks to determine in which sectors are they weak."

Anger surges through me, but I swallow it down. Ever since that day public opinion had turned completely against us. The civilian population had placed the blame for the war solely on our shoulders, and we were now pariahs. The Survey Corps had been reduced to a glorified branch of the Garrison, and was often used for the most dangerous, often outright suicidal missions, and if it wasn't for the fact that most of those were small scale missions involving just a few men we would have been wiped out long ago. As it was of the hundred of so survivors of that day only around 50 or so were left.

Trying my best to keep the anger out of my voice, I reply. "That would be unwise. Our strength has been greatly depleted after our delaying action at Ehrmich District. Using the Survey Corps in such a daring maneuver could utterly destroy it."

"And what a shame that would be."

"Commander, this is hardly the time for such petty arguing." Zackley's voice hardens, causing everyone present to quiet down. "Does nobody have any original suggestions, or at least suggestions that will not see entire units once again disappear off the maps?" I could see the hopeless resentment in his eyes, the frustration at being given reports of nothing but failure, the grim reminder that day after day the lines representing the enemy drew ever closer to our borders. Worst of all the frustration that every counterstroke only lead to the enemy capturing or slaughtering huge numbers of soldiers, leaving all three branches increasingly weak and poorly trained.

"I have one." At this declaration everyone turns to me.

"Well? Go on then."

"We need to go back."

 **Levi's POV**

I climb up the stairs, holding the tray tightly so that the soup and vegetables don't spill. Turning a corner, I walk up to the first door, and knock once, but sharply.

"Come in."

I push open the door. Hanji is occupying her usual spot, in her wheelchair, sitting by the window.

Sighing, I place the tray on the room table, and push her wheelchair to the table. Carefully, i take her classes off and clean them with a cloth, before placing them back on.

"Hey shitty glasses." I nudge the tray closer to her. "Eat up."

"I heard you were at Ehrmich. Are you hurt?" Her voice is monotone, lacking any of the energy it used to contain.

"No."

"That's good. Is anyone from your squad hurt?"

"No." I sigh, and push the tray even closer to her, until its practical touching her chest. "Eat. Please."

"I'm not hungry."

"Even if you aren't, eat up. You need to regain your strength."

"What's the point?" She gestures to her left sleeve, which is completely empty. "The doctors say I'll never walk again. No point wasting calories on people like me, not with the food shortages."

"Look, Hanji, I know what you're thinking. But what happened that day, it wasn't your fault."

"WASN'T MY FAULT?" Hanji snaps, sending the tray flying and food to splatter all over the floor. "If it wasn't for me… if only I hadn't been so eager, so reckless, maybe that soldier could have made it in time to save his commander from Mikasa, m-maybe we wouldn't be at war, maybe, maybe Moblit would still be al... be a…" and she trails off into a series of strangled sobs.

I gently push her wheelchair around so that it faces me, and pull her into a hug, letting her cry bitterly onto my shirt. "It's ok, I know, I know…"

Floorboards creak, and suddenly Erwin appears at the door.

"Levi, I'm sorry if this is a bad time, but I've got a Mission for you."

 **Annie's POV**

"How did he do that?"

I look over at Reiner. He is twisting his ring, deliberately not looking at me, but his expression shows that he has been meaning to ask me this for a long time.

"Warchief Zeke. In Trost, I saw Captain levi cut away at his nape, but he managed to escape. How?"

Sighing, I look away, over the rest of the house. It's a fairly small one, fairly plain one, although that was the point. Other than the kitchen we were sitting in there was a living room, which was furnished only with a table with a bowl of fruits and a few sofas, and two closed doors that lead to our bedrooms. We had been on the move for the past month, moving from house to similarly barren house as the frontline crept ever forward, leaving us no time to permanently settle down anywhere. And Zeke was never around either, always simply telling us to stay put while he and Pieck ran off everyday to who knows where, occasionally meeting up alone with the mysterious Titan shifter that had came to us shortly after Bertholdt was captured. Even Pieck didn't know who it was. Even Reiner, who was always the most outgoing of us all, had become reclusive and introverted. I doubt I had exchanged more than 50 words with him since Zeke told me to tell him all about the war.

 _So this is what's it's like to feel excluded. No wonder Reiner snapped._

"Well?"

I sigh again, not being able to shake the feeling that if I told Reiner this it would backfire in some way, but not telling him would blow up in my face much sooner, much worse. "Warchief has the ability to move himself around his Titan. Its limited to the back of his head and his spine, but he can move himself at will and almost instantaneously if he needs to."

"Nowhere else?"

"He can move to his entire back, but if he moves to the left his right limbs lose strength, and vice versa, so it's best to simply remain in the center."

"Oh. Can you do it?"

I look over in irritation. "If i could don't you think I would have used it by now?" He simply nods in mute agreement. We settle back into uncomfortable silence, but his question reminds me of one that I had been meaning to ask him for quite some time.

"Alright, I've answered your question, now it's my turn. How did you escape that day?"

"What day?"

"The day that we attacked the Walls, a month ago. That girl, Leola, she was right on top of you. When Pieck caught me she was squeezing down on your nape, I saw it, yet the next thing I knew you had somehow managed to

I pretend not to notice how his shoulders immediately tense up, albeit only minutely. "You were drifting in and out of unconsciousness, are you sure you didn't see it wrongly?"

"No, don't pull that bullshit on me. I-Wait." My head snaps up as my ears pick up on a slight tinkling sound, coming from the door. Like, the sound of a lock being picked.

Reiner's eyes widen, and his face settles in grim understanding. In one smooth motion he picks up a knife and is about to move over to stand beside the door when from comes a muffled "screw this." and something slams into it. The door cracks, and falls down. In stepped Eren, an almost maniacal smile on his face.

"Found youuuuu…"

 **Reiner's POV**

"Eren."

"Hey there Reiner. Annie" He leans against the living room table, picking up one of the grapes and popping it into his mouth. "I love what you've done with the place. Or did you backstab the owners and steal their lives away as well?"

He pauses, a second grape halfway to his mouth, and cringes, almost apologetically. "Yeah, not my best insults, but hey, it doesn't matter. The two of you are gonna die in a few minutes anyway, so why waste my good material here?"

"Eren." Annie's eyes are wide in fear and confusion. "Why are you… talking to-"

"Why not?" He pops the last of the grapes into his mouth, and casually flips over the bowl. "As I said, you're gonna die anyway, so might as well have one last conversation with you before you do."

Despite the tension, i could feel a tiny prickle of hope. I knew that under a treaty signed a few years ago Eren had been forbidden to use his Coordinate Ability, since it was classified as a WMD. In exchange both the Stronghold and the Hometown had agreed to not to use any chemical weapons in war. But there was nothing saying we couldn't use it.

 _If we can get Eren's power, then the war will be won. The Hometown will be free._

"Well then, let's not waste any more time." Eren brings his hand down, shattering the bowl and cutting himself, and Annie and I open our rings.

We shift, bursting out of and utterly destroying the house. Annie is sent flying as Eren punches her aside with his still forming arm, before turning to me.

I crouch, planning to tackle him to the ground, when suddenly another explosion rips up multiple houses. The top half of an enormous titan closely resembling Bertholdt's, only with spikes down his spine, emerges from the ground, around 30 meters tall even though it was only formed up to the waist. It reaches down and plucks me from the ground. Grabbing me with both arms, it squeezes, and my armor begins to crack.

A blood-curdling screech reaches me as Eren rips off both of Annie's arms, before knocking her back. A stream of acid shoots in and melts Annie at the knees, and Eren rushes in, launching a powerful kick at the limbless body. Her head is torn clean off, and Eren reaches down and rips Annie out from her Titan form, holding her up and screeching in triumph.

Only for Pieck to lunge in and bite his hand off and run off, dodging another acid spray coming from Soren, who is on top of the Wall. He roars in disbelief and runs after her, but Warchief Zeke rushes in, grabs his tendrils and hurls him into a house. Picking up a rock, he turns and tosses it, tearing through my captive's hands and causing him to toss me dozens of meters away, and I land at the edge of the forest.

I push myself up and limp determinedly forward. If I can get there, I can use my 3DMG to hide in the trees until...

Leola's titan form lunges out of the forest, landing right between me and my escape route. One month ago I would have panicked.

Not now.

I give her a smile and a nod. She in turn gives me a brief nod of her own, and a acknowledging grunt, and raises her fist. Exiting my Titan form, I leap out of the way, just as she smashes down on my now unoccupied Titan form.

Activating my 3DMG, i shot off into the forest.


	17. Battle For Time Part 2

**Author Note: So, uh, its been a while, hasn't it?**

 **Eren's POV**

"Eren." I stiffen as Soren walks in, holding an envelope. "The Military Police has sent back their verdict."

 _Oh no_. Dread settles in my stomach. Ever since his aide's assassination and the remaining incident I had been under investigation, and I was supposed to stand trial. Soren had done his best to delay it, citing excuse after excuse ranging from my necessity in combat to illness, but a fortnight ago I was finally forced to travel back to the Citadelian capital for the trial. After twelve days of inconclusive debating, the case was judged important enough to send to the Military Police. And unlike the famously incompetent Wallian Military Police, the Citadelian one was frighteningly efficient.

My hands tighten on the table. _Unfortunately._

"What does it say?"

Slowly, Soren picks up his letter opener and slices open the envelope, before pulling out the thick folded yellow paper.

He unfolds it. "You have been judged innocent."

Relief floods through me, and I slump down in my chair. "That's good to hear."

"Mm." He quickly flips through the documents, not caring how wrinkled they're becoming. "They've judged that your otherwise traitorous actions were triggered by your captivity by the Wallians, causing you to be mentally unstable and impulsive when you made that decision. You just need to go through a few months of therapy, half a year at most, and your record is cleared. You will also remain in active duty the entire time. That's it."

I heave a sigh. "That's fine."

"Although…" my head perks up again. "For using the Coordinate Power on a Wall Titan without authorization, your pay will be docked for six months. Unfortunate, but better than the alternative. You were lucky, if there was an enemy agent there you would have been executed to appease the neutral countries of the world. The last thing we need right now is for Bastion to enter the war."

I frown. Bastion. Ever since I had came back from my infiltration within the Walls she had been all over the news. They were one of the Middle Eastern countries, bordering the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and they were neutral in our war, although they were friendlier towards us than the Stronghold. They were no pushover, but they weren't exactly a world superpower either.

"Hah… What's up with that anyway? Some rumors spread that they developed some kind of secret super powerful bomb and suddenly the entire world is kissing their feet?"

"It is not just rumors Eren, nor it it just any bomb. Citadelian, Strongholdian, Redoubtian, even independent spies from the Hometown and reports we've stolen from Alcazar confirm that they have created a super weapon, codenamed the Manhattan Project. It is a single, radioactive bomb which power surpasses hundreds or even thousands of tonnes of TNT, and they have more than one. Fear of this new weapon has already caused the Redoubt to recognize Bastion sovereignty in the UN. In fact, it is very possible that they were the ones who leaked it's details to gain leverage. Its power is so great many neutral nations are beginning to approach us to use you as a counterweight. Once we've destroyed the Walls the hundreds of thousands of Wall Titans and their smaller but equally formidable mindless Titans still surrounding it will be yours to command."

"So that's why they suddenly increased the training for the Coordinate? And that's why I'm being reassigned to the Capital Garrison once the war is over?"

"Yes."

Leola jogs into the room, a half hopeful, half tentative expression on her face, followed by Matheo, with a similar expression.

"Your results are back right?"

"Yep." I grin, snatching the paper from Soren and holding it up to them, showing off the big red INNOCENT stamped on the bottom. Leola's expression brightens and her lips stretch into a toothless, congratulatory smile, while Matheo's instead deepens into a resentful snarl.

"The system is rigged. Rigged I tell you." With that he turns around and marches out of the room in a huff."

"Don't feel bad," Soren takes back the document from me. ", and don't resent him either. My aide enlisted with him into the military when they were kids. They've known each other for decades now. The fact that you protected his murderer didn't sit well with Matheo, nor does the fact that the Coordinate was taken into account when judging you. It could be given to someone else, but the High Command has deemed it too risky, so for now it will stay with you."

Soren slots the documents back into the envelope, and tosses it onto the table. "I'll be leaving. I am more than aware what happens when the two of you are in a room together."

Leola waits until he leaves, before throwing her arms around me and pulling my lips to hers. I close my eyes and melt into her, staying in this position before we come up for air.

I grin back at her. "Not that I'm complaining, but what's up with you? Why are you so affectionate recently."

"No particular reason." she presses her lips to mine again for a brief second before pulling away. "Just feel like it."

 **Erwin's POV**

"Commander! This way!" Gerthardt grabs my shoulders and roughly escorts me down the streets. Another bomb explodes over the wall, causing the portrait of Sina hanging over the gate to detach at one end and swing wildly on the other. The building next to me crumbles, but rather than exploding a mindless 13 meter class crawls out of the rubble.

He points towards "Get inside!" As soon as I step in he slams the door shut. From outside I hear the sound of sword drawing and yelling.

I descend the rough stone corridors, which occasionally shake as an explosion occurs somewhere above ground.

After descending at least a dozen flights, I'm met with a thick metal lined wooden door. I push it open, to see Pixis sitting at the table, sipping on a flask of alcohol.

"Erwin."

"Pixis." Another explosion shakes the room, but the ceiling holds. "Vine? At a time like this?"

"Only for my nerves Smith. Is Zackley safe?"

"Yes. He and Queen Historia have been evacuated to an underground cave, hundreds of feet underground."

"That's good. They'll be safer there. Even so, with our armies on the verge of collapse and daily bombings it doesn't look like anywhere will be safe." He takes a swig.

"By the way, where did you send Levi's squad, Erwin? I heard they were on a special mission, but you never told me to where."

"I sent them back… to where it all began."

 _Hanji, Moblit and Recruit Ackerman burst out of the tent. A millisecond later, it exploded into pieces as the stone covered titan, the Boulder Titan they called it, burst out of it and raised his fists, aiming them at Ackerman._

 _"Mikasa!"_

 _With a flash of light the Boulder Titan stumbled back as Eren's Titan form tackled it, who retaliated with a punch, tearing off half of his face. With anger filled in his remaining eye, his tendrils shot out of his back and he sliced at the titan's chest, the blades dragging fruitlessly over the thick stone and producing nothing more than sparks. Eren roared, hardened his fist and retaliated with a strike of his own that did nothing more than slightly crack the armor._

 _"Eren! What are you doing?" Leola ran in, her mouth on the verge of clamping around her hand before Soren tackled her to the ground, forcefully tearing them away._

 _With a roar a 6 meter class, shiny dark purple titan with a disproportionately massive head and jaws lunged towards Hanji, trampling on Moblit as it did. By some miracle it missed, but managed to clamp its teeth around Hanji's arm, ripping it away and smacking her aside._

 _"Hanji!" Levi shot in, slicing away at the titan. With a slash he decapitated its right hand, before somersaulting over a retaliatory strike and slicing away the fingers of the other and its eye. The titan roared in rage and tried to bite down on him, but he avoided its strike before grabbing Hanji and fleeing towards us._

 _Gunther ran up to me, his forehead and cheek scratched. "Commander! Your orders?"_

 _My eyes flickered across the battlefield. There were now five titans, all congregated at the field overlooking HQ. With a roar the Boulder Titan smashed his fists into the castle, causing its right wing to collapse. I could see only a few human soldiers, the rest must have gone into the forest for drills._

 _But they were all clustered around the open field where their tent was pitched, and Eren… I looked over, in time to see him toss the 6 meter class away, before wrestling with a glowing eyed 13 meter class. Judging from the way his jaw is crystallized and how he's carefully guarding it from attack Recruit Ackerman is clamped tightly in it._

 _"We'll use Eren to cover our retreat. All soldiers evacuate! Evacuate! To the horses!" Gunshots rang out, and trees cracked as a tank, with multiple soldiers on it, roared out of the forest and fired at Eren, destroying one of his tendrils. The ground shakes, and in the distance a massive 50 meter tall skinless titan lumbered towards us. Two of the Titans peel away and run off, presumably to intercept it._

 _"Commander!" Eld waves at me from his horse, holding mine in the other. "This way!" As I leapt onto the horse and rode off, I looked back just in time to see Eren throw recruit Ackerman into the distance before the Boulder Titan landed on him, crushing him into the ground._

"Erwin?"

"Apologies." I blink away my thoughts.

"So, where are they?"

"I sent them back to the Survey Corps HQ."

 **Random Wall Sina citizen's POV**

I gulp down the tea greedily. If Maurice wasn't such a pain to visit I would come down daily just for his tea.

Gasping in satisfaction, I wipe my lips. "You ever thought about moving to the city and selling your tea rather than having people trek all the way here to learn it from you?"

Maurice grins and refills my cup. "No thank you, city life is far too noisy for me. I couldn't sleep a wink the last time I stayed there, almost died of exhaustion." He carefully looks over the labels of the boxes containing his food before abruptly opening one and pulling out a few small bags of black leaves.

I gaze over at the boxes, which are arranged properly and in stacks too high for him to reach properly.

"You've been busy. Didn't you just complain you're too old to stand over the fire watching a teapot? Where did you get the strength to move these all by yourself?"

"Oh, no. I hired some help. Curious one. She almost literally fell into my lap, she just showed up one day with nothing by the clothes on her back and asked for a job."

"Why would she come here? There's a city only an hour from here."

"Beats me. Maybe she likes the peace and quiet?"

"Hm, maybe. What's she called?"

"She gave me a name, but telling you it would be pointless, since it's a false one."

"Ah? How would you know?"

"I've been hiring strangers to do work for me for decades, you think I don't know how to tell when someone uses a fake name? They never think to think it out beforehand, always saying whatever name pops to mind. She hesitated so long before giving me a coherent name, she's either senile or making it up, and she's far too young to be going senile already."

Maurice shrugs. "Oh wells, she does her work well, nice enough. Maybe a tad cold, but she's at least quiet to be around. Little reckless too, said she wanted to join the military, something about looking for someone."

"Every single man in my village except me was sent back yesterday on stretchers and she still wants to join? You've spending your money on a crazy one, old man. Need me to stay, in case she stabs you in your sleep?"

"No, no, it's ok. I've survived her for a month, I can survive a few more nights. And if anything I pay her too little, seeing how much work she does around here. She practically renovated my house for me. All she asked for was enough food and medicine to recover completely from some wounds she got, and I think she's saving enough money to bribe the officials to promote her to a position she wanted."

I chuckle, shaking my head. "Ambitious one, isn't she? Even if it's just a Squad Leader that's not a small sum of money."

"Maurice." I look over at the doorway. A fairly well built, black haired girl looks back at us, a travel bag slung over her shoulders.

"Can I speak with you?"

 **Mikasa's POV**

"So you're leaving now eh? Well, can't say I won't be sad. Half my friends have their foot in the grave and the other half are already in it. Do you need anything?"

"Just enough food and water for the six hour journey to the nearest district. Oh, I also need you to dye my hair, if that's possible. Any color is fine."

"Sick of black are we? Alright, luckily enough for you I've got some brown dye stashed away. It's a bit old, but it still works." He smiles, revealing the familiar mouth of yellowed teeth. "A noblewoman accidentally left it behind when I helped her fix a cart. She never came back for it, not like I'd expect her to anyway."

He rummages through the drawers for a minute, before triumphantly pulling out a small metallic container. Filling a nearby bowl with water, he opened it and emptied the powder into it, stirring and filling the room with a strangely sweet chemical smell.

"I'll do the front part myself." He shrugs and hands me a brush. I begin combing my hair, making sure to leave no patches uncovered. Up close, the smell is now almost sickly. Upon finishing, I hand the brush to him, and he immediately begins dying the the back. I try not to shudder as the slimy, sticky paste trickles down behind my ears before he cleans it up with a rag.

"Just let it dry for an hour, and it should last until your hair grows. So, after this you'll be headed to right to the drafting stations eh?"

"Yes, thank you for sheltering me." I gesture at my Survey Corps jacket and swords, which are hung up against the wall. "You can do with that what you want, but please don't show it to anyone else."

"Are you sure about this? From the looks of it the military isn't going to survive much longer. You're more than welcome to stay if you want."

I inhaled. I knew that. I knew that the Walls were likely to fall soon, knew that I might die the moment I step out to face the Citadelians in open combat. But it would be worth it, the risks, the danger, it would all be worth if if I could see his face one more time.

The face of the person who gave me life.

"Yes, I am.".


	18. Battle For Time Part III

**Levi's POV**

"Water, Captain?" Petra held out her water skin, smiling, presumably at how I had earlier cursed at mine for having a leak.

I nod in thanks and take a small mouthful before passing it back.

"We're almost there, about two miles more through this forest." Eld tightens his straps, slinging his gun over his shoulder. Should we leave the horses here?"

"Yes."

After tying the horses to a tree, we entered the forest, making our way through the thick shrubbery. Loud cracks echo through the forest.

"Is that… our gunfire?"

"Rebels. There are many tiny groups still resisting deep in lost lands. We rescu-" We are interrupted by the familiar, terrifying squeal of tank tracks.

Several hundred meters away, in the open field, four green tanks, about the height of a man, and two yellow ones about double that height drive slowly past us, soldiers in black masks sitting on them, stormtroopers they were called. Rows of men march alongside them, at least a few hundred, some dragging machine guns behind them. In the distance I can several see more such formations.

I curse silently at the guns. Of all the weapons I had encountered those were the ones that pissed me off the most. Normal soldiers were deadly, but beatable, even if only in small groups. Tanks were untouchable, but they were rare. And planes at least had the courtesy to announce their presence when they arrived. But those accursed things were not only common, but deadly silent. I had lost count of the number of times I was moving with a squad or more of soldiers, only for them to perish right before my eyes because of one or two accursed Citadelian soldiers hiding in ambush.

"So many. We need to warn the Survey Corps and the Garrison, they'll be facing the brunt of this attack soon."

"Later. We need to focus on our main mission."

We're interrupted once again by the appearance of a Titan, this time to our right.

Its body was a deep purple in color, and its arms were muscular, although the muscles were strangely pulsing. Its eyes resembled those of spiders, and its mouth was a foaming pit of teeth. Rather than fingers it had curved, shiny blades, six on each hand, and its arms were so long said hands were scraping at its shins. Two differently dressed soldiers holding longer guns, either snipers or flamethrower soldiers, were perched on his shoulders.

I grimace, my hand tightening on my sword hilts, but I sigh, physically grabbing on to Gunter's shoulder and pulling him along, leading the rest of my squad.

"Ignore him, he isn't important. Right now the target is the priority."

"Right." Reluctantly, they trudge forward, leaving him as he starts to tear apart the houses in a nearby abandoned town, sporadic gunfire from hidden rebels echoing throughout the valley.

We trudged on silently, occasionally ducking behind cover when gunfire rings out or a plane flies overhead. A mindless titan crawled up a nearby tree before a soldier with a 3DMG killed it, and was himself shot by another hidden enemy. After what seemed like and most likely was hours of walking and climbing, we made it.

"Here we are." I look over the broken down stone castle in front of me, moss and vines once again starting to take over its once spotless walls and the tents and campfire wood of that day still strewn around. The Survey Corps HQ.

"Home sweet home."

 **Jean's POV**

I tear hungrily into the loaf of bread, savoring the sweet beans that were baked into it, before taking a sip of the beef stew. One of the perks of retreating so deep into the interior was that the food had become better. Whether it was because supply lines were shorter or because there were now less people to feed, I didn't know.

"Fooooddd!" Sasha half ran half stumbled to our campsite, ignoring how loose that was making her bandages, hungrily snatching up her loaf of bread and tearing it apart. I smile. It was once annoying, now, it was just nice to see some things hadn't changed.

Several dozen soldiers, clad in ill-fitting uniforms and in equally loose formation, march past us.

"Who are those?"

"New recruits I think. They're deciding who will be commanding officer."

As I watch, three candidates are called to step forward, a thin, blond guy, another blond but larger built, and a athletic looking girl with long brown hair. The commander calls them aside and speaks to them, before rubbing his left pointer finger and thumb together. The first one hands over a small bag of coins, which he looks over almost mockingly before placing it in his pocket. The second hands over several larger bags, which from the metallic and sharp angles were full of pieces of gold. The third hands over a similar amount of bags, but also hands over a large piece of glittering crystal, hanging off a string of smaller but equally shiny crystals.

Gerthardt sat down beside us, scoffing. "The Walls are collapsing all around us and they're still trying to hoard material wealth. Disgusting."

I nod in agreement, watching as the brown haired girl salutes the man and marches to the head of the formation, the other two falling behind her.

She turns around to lead them in marching to the front, and I choke on my bread.

"Mikasa?"

 **Eren's POV**

"I actually feel bad for them."

"What?" Leola looks at me like I've lost my mind.

"I mean, it's sad don't you think? The walls are literally the least advanced nation on the planet. They're rich, sure, but most of that wealth they can't even reach. They have no Titans at all, none that they can control anyway, or any kind of motorised vehicles or modern weapons. Their population is less than a tenth of ours, and even when their army outnumbers ours 8 to 1 we're slaughtering them in droves. They could never have beat us, and if it wasn't for one lone crazy woman we wouldn't even be at war with them."

"Well, not just one woman. If they hadn't also killed our diplomat when he came."

I sighed. "Yeah, that's true. Still, its tragic, there's only one way it can end for them."

A certain Asian's face entered my mind. "It's almost like they were set up."

 **Reiner's POV**

"Reiner."

"Leola." I look over to see another brown haired girl walk into the room behind her.

"Who's she?"

"The one who knocked out Mikasa and got her framed for the murder."

"Yeah, you better be grateful. That girl was heavy, how can someone be so muscular yet so thin?" Her mouth twists. "I'm actually kinda jealous, I've been trying for years to get abs half as hard as hers."

I ignore her, turning to Leola. "Is she also the one who intercepted the message from the Citadel to the Wallian nobles, causing the diplomat to be killed?"

"Actually she killed the diplomat herself, but otherwise yes."

I nodded. "I was wondering how the Walls managed to kill the Snowarmor Titan. Still, how did you manage to fake his death convincingly? Killing the Snowarmor titan isn't easy, he beat me easily when we fought and it took artillery cannons from the Citadel to bring me down."

"We've been spies within the Citadelian military for eight years now, and you think we don't know how they operate? I induced a forced partial shift and killed him with a stolen thunder spear, then tore up the surrounding landscape and scattered blood samples and scavenged broken 3DMG. To any external observers he was killed by a thunder spear after a fierce battle. Also…" she grimaced. "No offense, but conventional artillery is already enough to smash your armor, the Reconnaissance Division brought mostly light guns when they fought you, only Big Bertha was a heavy gun."

"That is hurtful."

But rather than the lightening of the mood that I had hoped for, her grimace deepens. "Also, we've received word that Bertholdt is about to be executed."

My head shot over. "What?"

"Apparently they deem him a liability to keep alive, especially when with his death they could make another Colossal Titan. They already used his spinal fluid to dramatically alter an already large titan, the one you faced when we attacked you. They plan to use him to create another Colossal Titan, to use on the Scandinavian front. We need reinforcements there, the rebels-"

"Wha- Then what are we doing here? We need to rescue him!"

"Calm down Reiner."

"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down!"

Leola held her hands up in placation, and the other girl hesitantly puts a hand on my shoulder, which i push off. "We've already submitted multiple appeals for postponement and cancellation. Even if they don't succeed we'll buy some time to think of a plan, at least several weeks while they process them. Storming into the prison won't accomplish anything, I feel bad for Reiner too, but rescuing him through sheer brute force won't work"

I slump back down in the chair. They were right, I couldn't rescue Bertoldt anyway even if I just rushed in, even if there weren't multiple shifter guards assigned to his prison I would still need to somehow march through hundreds of miles of hostile lands and waters. Alright then, I'll wait.

 _Just hang on a little while longer, Bertholdt._

 **Kurt's POV**

The ground reverberates as rows of trucks and mindless cargo titans pass by, heading towards the front line. Hot air rushes in as a supporting helicopter flies overhead. In the distance, I can hear the fierce shriek of an experimental V1 rocket being tested.

But all of this is muted, as I sit in my chair, struggling to handle what I've just heard.

"A-are you sure?"

"Yes. Bertholdt is to be executed at once."

"But… but what about the appeals? It will take weeks to-"

"It has been decided that he is too important a resource to allow to languish in a jail cell. The appeals have all been summarily rejected. But, the High Command understands your background, and we sympathize. We will grant him the highest visit privileges before his execution, if you or anyone else wishes to say their last goodbyes."

"I… I understand. Thank you sir." The radio crackles and the transmission fizzes out.

I slump down in my chair. Bertholdt… He wouldn't even be able to see his best friend's face one last time before he died. My hand slowly drifts towards the phone book, before pulling back. _I-I'll call his parents later..._

In a vain effort to distract myself from my friend's impending doom, I reach down to grab the files on-

 _Wait._

I paw frantically at the air before looking into the drawer. Its empty. Where did all the documents go? I never touched them, and my office is so well guarded that it was impossible for anyone to have stolen them. So whe-

 _No._

 _No no no!_ I clutch my head in horror. They were left behind, the team I sent to scrub the HQ wasn't thorough enough. If the Citadel or Wallians learned about what we had done, what the Hometown was planning to do-

I snatch up the phone, dialling the number for one of the Corps commanders.

"Nicholas? Send a Commando squad to the Survey Corps HQ. Quickly!"


	19. Battle For Knowledge

**Eren's POV**

"The troops are in position. Fourth battalion will break out of our bridgehead over this river, and push east. Sixth battalion will break north. Once their mobile reserves come up to counter this assault the main force will break through their center, Sixth Tank Division and Seventeenth Division will take the two routes we discussed and we shall all converge on the city. Is everyone clear?"

"Yes sir!"

"Now, due to possible intervention by the rogue Titan group still on the loose, all the shifters in this operation have been detached from their formations and unified into the 1st Titan Platoon. As the highest ranked Mr Dubois will take command."

"Now, the Armorarm, Spitter and Crawler Titans will be attached to the Seventeenth Division, your skills will be instrumental in breaking through the defense. The Furfire Titan and the two Lode Titans will be attached to fourth and sixth battalions respectively."

The General turned to me. "And the Coordinate Titan will remain at Mobile Headquarters, along with the Boulder and Sonic Titans. In the event that the rogue Titan group appears, you three shall be dispatched to hunt them down."

"Understood?"

"YES SIR!"

"Good. You are dismissed." Grinning, I slung my arm around Leola's shoulders, only to see her quietly grumbling. "What's wrong? Cheer up! We finally got them to name your Titan something other than "Titan 0064."

Leola scoffs. "Yes, but Armarmor Titan, what the hell sort of name is that? Half the Titans we have have armored arms, half of them have armored bodies, that's like calling your Titan the black haired Titan, it's so generic."

"Well, it sounds cooler than Lode Titan."

She pouted adorably. "Well, that is true. Still, I prefer what you guys used to call me."

"You say that only because you like u-" I paused, stopping in my tracks.

"Eren? Eren are yo-" but Leola's words began to fuzz, like I was descending underwater.

"Arrgghhh!" I collapsed to the ground, knocking over a pitcher of water and a flower vase as I did.

 _Memories._

 _Me, being beaten up by Levi. Sasha sneaking meat onto the Wall. Annie's Titan chasing after me in a forest. Arguing with Jean in a canteen. Watching Bertholdt's Titan destroy the wall not once but twice._

 _And a Titan with a huge teeth smile walking forward, plucking a woman named Carla Yaeger from the ruins of my house._

"Eren?" Leola was holding on to my shoulders in concern, and several other soldiers, Soren included, were crowded around me. One of them pulled out a first aid kid and frantically began rummaging through it.

"Ar-are you okay?"

"It's… I'm fine."

 **Mikasa's POV**

"Miss, we don't have enough shovels. The trenches can't be finished on time."

I bit my lip, looking away. "See those trees over there? Their branches are flat. Cut those down and use them."

"Yes Mam." The soldier saluted and marched away.

My second in command, a blond kid whose name I still didn't know, walked up to me.

"Not to question you, Mam, but why are you deployed in this area?" He pointed on the map to the broken down watchtower I was in. "It'll let you ambush any passing Titans, maybe even beat them, but you're leaving yourself totally open to gunfire."

"Well, that's what I have you for isn't it?"

"Even so, if the enemy does anything close to their past battle plans, you'll only have enough time to take out one Titan."

"It's fine, I'm only aiming for one."

"Excuse me mam?"

"Nothing, carry on."

 **Bertholdt's POV**

I marched forward, swallowing a mouthful of saliva. This was it.

A man standing by played some sort of marching song on a drum. Six soldiers, clad in frilly red ceremonial attire, were lined up in a row, their decorated rifles ready by their side. I squinted into the spectating crowd, were my parents here? I didn't expect them to be, they had only been given a few hours notice, but I kept looking anyway.

The mike on the podium sounded. A plump, bald man in a medal covered uniform stepped up, stomped his boot, and snapped to attention.

"Bertholdt Hoover! In recognition of your service to the Citadel, you have been granted a ceremonial, proper execution. Rest assured, Mr Hoover, that your family will receive proper compensation, and that you will have a proper burial."

"Now, Any last words, Mr Hoover?"

"J-Just tell my family that I love them."

"Do you want a blindfold?"

I swallowed. A blindfold?

 _"Bertholdt."_

 _I looked up, and Warchief Zeke placed his hand on my chair. "We are traitors to our leaders, but we made that choice ourselves. I want you to promise me that if one day death comes for either of us, for once in your life you won't falter, you will look it in the eye and face it head on."_

 _"I promise."_

"No, I don't."

"Very well." He straightened himself up. "Gunners!" The six soldiers pointed their rifles at me. Swallowing, I forced myself to stare straight at the barrels, trying not to tremble.

"Wait!"

An explosion ripped through the area, hurling rock and fire into the air, and a hand grabbed me.

 **Levi's POV**

"So why are we here?" I sighed, before remembering that Eld had been sent on a relief mission to the south, and had only been told we were coming here mere minutes before we left, so I couldn't blame him for asking that.

"About two weeks after we evacuated, Erwin came here himself on a mission to steal supplies from a convoy passing through the area. He failed, but while preparing the ambush one of his soldiers reported that there were still documents from the enemy here, those from the very top from the looks of it. The soldier was killed in the fighting before he could report where or what exactly those documents were, but documents like that could give us some advantage, no matter how small."

I pulled out the hammer from my bag "So, we're here to see if these documents are still here."

"Petra. You search the tents outside, Eld, go to the roof and keep watch, stay out of sight. Auruo, Gunther, with me." Raising the hammer, I brought it down on the lock, smashing away the worn wood around it. Slowly, I pushed open the door, pulling apart several cobwebs as I did and causing a spider to fall to the ground and scurry away.

A year ago, I would've chafed at the state of the walls, covered in mold and with multiple living things crawling on them. Now, just seeing them made me nostalgic.

"Spread out. They used our HQ when we left, but we don't know how large their operation is, so those papers could be anywhere.

We fanned out. Auruo walking down to the basement, Gunther moving to the administrative areas and me to the living quarters.

I walked slowly down the corridors, carefully checking each room. Flipping over the blankets, ruffling through the drawers, even looking under the tables. I opened every cabinet, digging through hundreds of dusty clothes and personal belongings.

I saw Gunther once. He shook his head, and we continued.

After two hours of searching, I gave up. Looks like Erwin was chasing yet another pipe dream, there weren't any documents here. If there were, they had been cleared out long ago.

"Captain! Guys!"

 _Was that- was that Petra?_ I looked out the window to see my squad members bursting out of the tent, knocking over a pole and causing it to collapse as she did, sprinting towards us, a large wad of papers pressed closely to her chest.

 _She found something?_ Leaping out of the window, I grappled down to the ground, skidding to a stop in front of her, the other members of my squad landing around me.

"Petra? What did you-"

"A plot. This was all a plot against us!"

"Petra? What are you…"

"Look at them!" Petra shoved the papers into our hands. Mine displayed long figures of troop movements into selected areas of the Walls and something about needing additional rations, and Eld looked perplexed, but whatever Auruo and Gunther had caused their eyes to widen in shock and horror.

"Wha- thes-"

"Captain! These prove that we weren't the ones who started the war! We're innocent! It was all a setup so that we would look like the attackers!" She was smiling, her face full of hope. "If we can get this to our leadership, to their leadership, then-"

Machine gun fire tore through the area, ripping through the building. We all lunged to the ground. From outside I could hear the squeal of tank tracks, and the stomping of a lone Titan.

"Petra! Get down! What are you…" Gunther trailed off when he saw the trail of red down her nose, and the hole in her head where it came from.

"C-C-Cap… t-tain."

Petra fell to the ground, the ghost of her last smile still etched on her face.


	20. Battle For The Mind

**Levi's POV**

"Petra!"

I lunged for Gunther's belt, pulling out his gun along with mine and firing it blindly into the forest, at where I saw the flashes of light. I heard a pained yell, followed by a silhouette of a soldier keeling over.

A sound like hundreds of trumpets being blared came over the horizon, and a yellow 17 meter class Titan with gills stomped out of the forest, it's glowing red eyes locking on to us. Out of the forest beside it burst several different soldiers, all carrying silenced firearms and dressed in camouflaged gear, although a few wore the cloaks of flamethrower troops and one carried an anti-tank weapon.

The Titan kicked over the few remaining barbed wire installations, before trampling on a abandoned cannon.

Auruo drew his swords, shaking with anger. "You… you bastards!"

"Auruo, no!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!" he ran towards them, only for holes to be ripped through his chest. He collapsed to the ground, blood squirting out of him

"AURUO!"

 _Dammit!_ I hastily snatched up the files, stuffing them into my belt and into one of Eld's hole for spare blades. I grabbed Gunther and Eld, dragging them until both of them started to move. For some reason the enemy soldiers weren't shooting, instead simply running after us.

"Hey, stop!"

 _Like hell I'm doing that!_

Gun fire crackled out. We burst into the cover of the HQ, bullets ricocheting around us. I slammed the door shut, not bothering to bolt the broken lock, and jammed one of my spare blades through the handles.

"South tower! We'll grapple to the forest!" We tore down the corridor. I could faintly hear the sound of wood breaking around us, and the soft but still present sound of cushioned boots running.

A soldier burst out of a door to the front, but his gun stuttered when he saw me.

I slashed him down, and gritted my teeth. _They're trying to capture me alive._

The main door behind us blew open.

"Go!" I pushed Eld and Gunther in front of me and we ran forward. Shot rang out, but they weren't trying to hit us, instead they ricocheted off the walls, trying to stumble us.

A hand smashed through the wall, grabbing on to Gunther. Eld sliced off its thumb and the top half of its fingers, and Gunther somersaulted out of its grasp, narrowly avoiding another grab by its undamaged arm. We charged deeper in, leaving it to fruitlessly lash at the walls as we ran up to the highest tower.

I looked out the window, and swallowed. A tiny 2 meter tall Titan was stalking the door below, with no other Citdealean forces in sight. Didn't matter, as long as we kept above it, the tower and the nearby trees were easily ten to twenty meters tall. I signalled to them, and we leapt out the window.

But it sprang up, easily covering the distance to us in a single leap. As we somersaulted out of the way, machine gun fire rang out, and Eld twirled and dropped to the ground.

We swung to the trees, the two meter titan chasing after us from below. With a roar it lunged up, but I sliced its nape off and it plummeted to the ground.

We frantically swung from tree to tree. Lightning came from behind us, probably another Shifter or the same from before, and a helicopter passed over us, their lights mercifully missing us.

Wait. I squinted. W-was that clearing? Had we already run out of trees?

No.

It was the edge of a cliff.

For the first time since we started running I felt a twinge of panic. I knew this drop off. We could grapple off it, but below it was a river, so it had to be timed just right in order to swing and clear it. I could manage it, I had practiced it twice before just in case, but Gunther, he had never gone it before. Could he...

A gun shot rang out, and Gunther shook and cursed, plummeting clumsily to the ground.

I landed at the edge, and ran back, dragging him behind the smallest of several boulders. Hastily, I ripped off my caveat and wiped away at the rapidly spreading crimson in his side.

"Captain, I-"

"Shut up, if you have any bandages take them out."

Within the forest came the rumblings of some large vehicle, possibly a tank but most likely some kind of truck. A rocket flew out the forest and hit the smallest boulder, demolishing it. Squeaking sounds came, like a gun turret being turned, and another rocket impacted the next one, blowing that away as well. I could faintly hear Titan footsteps, and that same accursed rumbling drone.

"Captain." Gunther was holding his side, trying in vain to stop the blood leaking out of it. "My 3DMG is shot, I can't move anymore."

"Shut up." I pulled my handkerchief out and pressed it to his side, discarding my soaked caveat. "Our horses are just a few kilometers away, we can find a way down this-"

"Captain, listen to me, I can't follow anymore." He pulled out his binder and pressed it into my hands. "You need to get this to Commander Smith. If what Petra said is true, if what is on this document is true, we can end the war. We can show this to them, we can prove we didn't do anything!"

"No, Gunther, we can make it together!"

"No, we can't."

Grabbing his gun, he pushed me off the edge and ran into the forest.

 **Bertholdt's POV**

The Titan has been running for a long time.

Too long, in fact, it had been sprinting for the past ten hours, if my watch was correct. It had only stopped twice for toilet breaks and once to let me drink water, eat some biscuits and give me new clothes and a watch, and it was back to running.

I looked at its arms, which for some reason were still charred black from shielding me. Its face greatly resembled Ymir's Titan, with its teeth and eyes, but it was partially armored and was roughly the size of Annie's Titan. Its jaw was clamped tightly around the chain that held the basket which I was sitting in.

I briefly thought of trying to escape, but decided against it. I couldn't shift, and even if I did this Titan was strong. It managed to slice several buildings in half with eye lasers, and it was fast, faster than Annie's Titan for sure. I had no guarantee of winning, escape even less so.

However, it slowly began to grind to a halt, slowing its. It stopped neared a secluded hill, bone spurs coming out of its heels as brakes.

"Off." I slid off, almost collapsing when my legs gave way.

It's flesh opened, and out dropped some oiled packages, which unravelled as they hit the ground. Inside them was a baked potato, a squashed sandwich and half an apple. It gestured towards them. "Eat."

I nibbled on the sandwich, which was filled with some kind of salty vegetables. I made a face, and it tossed another sandwich at me, this one filled with honey.

As I nibbled on the immensely more palatable meal, I looked up at the Titan nervously. It had rescued me, and had done everything in its power to not harm me, so it was unlikely it was a Titan from other nations or some hidden Titan from the Walls. But I had also never seen it before, it wasn't even the Titan that was speaking with Zeke before the Second Battle of Shiganshina. "Who are you?"

A gravelly voice drifted out. "Does it matter?"

 **Eren's POV**

I gripped my head in pain, hissing as sharp stabs wrecked it.

 _The gates opening, the Survey Corps riding out_

Pouring myself a small glass of the medicated alcohol, I gulped it down. The pain lessened, and I breathed a small sigh, but the pounding came back almost immediately. Frustrated, I gripped the edge of the table, my fingers almost warping the polished wood.

 _Fighting with a significantly younger Mikasa over chopping firewood_

"What-"

 _My first expedition. Annie's Titan running after me._

"-the hell'"

 _My first Titan kill, among the ruins of a castle._

"-is happening."


End file.
